B.C. to provide $3.46M to keep Greater Victoria walk-in clinics open until end of year

The British Columbia government says it will provide $3.46 million in short-term funding to maintain five walk-in medical clinics in Greater Victoria.

The "short-term stabilization funding" will pay for 10.26 full-time-equivalent family doctor contracts at the five clinics until the end of the year, the Health Ministry announced Friday.

The five walk-in clinics receiving the nine-month funding allocation are the Esquimalt Medical Clinic, the West Coast Family Medical Clinic in Sooke, the West Saanich Medical Clinic, and the Shoreline Medical clinics in Brentwood Bay and Sidney.

The funding will also cover 6.78 full-time-equivalent nurses and health workers at South Island Primary Care Networks to support the five walk-in clinics, the ministry said.

The province says the funding will keep the clinics operating while the ministry works on finding a long-term solution to southern Vancouver Island's doctor shortage.