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Just under half of the people on a provincial waiting list for a family physician live in Kamloops.

As of Dec. 12, there were 54,772 Interior Health residents on wait lists for family doctors, including 22,376 in Kamloops alone. The entire Central Okanagan, with about three times the population of Kamloops, only has 4,251.

“The main reason there is a significant difference between Kamloops and the other communities is because there has been a registry there for a much longer period of time,” an email from the Ministry of Health to iNFOnews.ca says. “A pilot Health Connect Registry was launched in Kamloops in 2016.”

The registry expanded to the entire province early this year.

Prior to that, the BC College of Family Physicians handled registries in some places, including the Central Okanagan. In February, it estimated there were 20,000 people on that wait list.

READ MORE: Estimated 10% of Thompson-Okanagan residents on waiting lists for family doctors

At that time the provincial registry showed 17,534 on the Thompson-Nicola region’s wait list so the Kamloops numbers have grown since then.

The latest data shows that there are 1,846 people on the Vernon wait list and 3,801 in Penticton.

A survey conducted by the physician regulator in 2022 found that 84% of BC residents did have an “ongoing relationship with a family physician.”

That means 16% of BC residents need family doctors but, according to the Ministry of Health data, fewer than 5% (246,041) have registered to be on its waiting lists.

Interior Health, with 16% of BC’s residents, has 22.3% of the people on provincial waiting lists.

Go here for more information and to register.

People on family physician waiting lists in the Thompson-Okanagan region by local health area:

•        5 – North Thompson
•      89 – Enderby
•    135 – Armstrong/Spallumcheen
•    149 – Merritt
•    363 – Salmon Arm
•    429 – Keremeos
• 1,134 – Summerland
• 1,846 – Vernon
• 3,681 – South Okanagan
• 3,801 – Penticton
• 4,251 – Central Okanagan
• 4,679 – Cariboo/Chilcotin
• 22,376 – Kamloops

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