SWITCH BC, which stands for Safety, Wellbeing, Innovation, Training and Collaboration in Healthcare is a new organization focused on the health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone working in healthcare in B.C. Their unique organizational model is a collaboration of unions, physicians, and employers. They are working to support province-wide innovation, prevention, training, and enhancing the culture of safety in all healthcare workplaces in B.C.

Community Physician Health and Safety Program

The new provincewide Community Physician Health and Safety program will help support and enhance workplace health and safety for all community physicians and their staff. The program offers tools and resources for community physicians to support workplace health and safety including psychological and physical health and safety, violence prevention, injury prevention, and more. This work is funded through the Physician Master Agreement negotiated by Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health.

The program includes clinic assessments, a robust guide detailing regulatory requirements, and coming soon a web portal that allows community physicians and staff to customize their own health and safety programs for their practice that complies with WorkSafeBC obligations. Health and safety plans can prevent work-related illnesses and injuries, improve health and wellbeing, reduce administrative burdens, and improve system effectiveness.

Download the Community Physician Health and Safety Guide. It’s a digital resource to assist community physicians and their staff, as employers and workers, to understand and maintain compliance with the Workers Compensation Act (WCA) and the Occupational Heath and Safety (OHS) Regulation.

The new Community Physician Health and Safety Web Portal is now available provincially! The portal provides physician-specific resources and tools to simplify the process of building a tailored health and safety program, reducing administrative burdens. Please visit www.cphs.switchbc.ca to learn more.

For more information or interest on clinic assessments and developing a health and safety program for your clinic, email CPHS@switchbc.ca.