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A petition urging the province take action and attract more doctors to B.C. is gathering traction, with nearly 50,000 signatures so far.

Camille Currie is a Vancouver Island resident, but she is just one of nearly a million British Columbians without a family doctor.

"Many individuals have been waiting for years to secure a family doctor, without success," she wrote for the online petition. "Walk-in clinics are disappearing, and families are being abandoned in their care of the sick and the vulnerable."

READ MORE: 'Critically understaffed': Primary care centres not much help to those without family doctors in Okanagan, Kamloops

While she lives on Vancouver Island, the shortage family doctors and walk-in clinics is a familiar concern in the southern Interior.

In Kamloops, for example, there is no walk-in clinic. People without family doctors, or those without an appointment with minor emergencies, are forced to visit the Urgent and Primary Care Centre or the emergency department at Royal Inland Hospital.

In private practices, B.C. doctors traditionally work under a pay for service system. Currie takes aim at this system in the petition, calling on the province to adjust its billing model in order to attract more doctors.

According to the B.C. College of Family Physicians, 33 per cent of doctors say the current compensation model is ineffective and takes away from patient care.

READ MORE: Access to healthcare in Kamloops a barrier to potential new residents

Almost one million people in the province have no family doctor, while 40% of people who have one are concerned they will lose theirs because of retirement or practice closure, according to the college.

Meanwhile, most Urgent and Primary Care Centres in the province, which are meant to make up for a shortage of walk-in clinics, are understaffed.

In Kamloops, the primary care centre only has 66% of its intended staffing levels.

"Universal health care is not free," Currie wrote. "Doctors’ fees are paid with our taxes. The Government of B.C. is accountable to its citizens when applying these funds to ensure adequate medical services are available."

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