COVID-19 Office Safety Plan Support Grant for BC’s Community Physicians

Sep 10, 2020

December 2020 update: The application deadline has been extended from December 31st, 2020 to January 31st, 2021.

Holiday Closure Notice

Doctors of BC will be closed from December 24th 2020 – January 3rd 2021, and will reopen for normal business hours on January 4th, 2021. Applications will be accepted until January 31st, 2021 and any applications submitted after November 29th will be processed for payment in January 2021.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Doctors with community offices in BC have invested time and expense to re-open their practices in a way that ensures safe in-person care for patients.

To help offset some of these costs, the Joint Collaborative Committees – a partnership of Doctors of BC and the BC government that includes the General Practice Services Committee (GPSC) - are reallocating funds to provide a $1,000 grant to each eligible physician who  has implemented COVID-19 Safety Plan in their community practices.

man stands behind pexiglass in PPE holding form

Eligibility criteria includes physicians who:

    • Have an active practice in a community office that provides publicly-funded health services.
    • Are paid under Fee For Service, Alternate Payment Plan, or Population-Based Funding arrangements (GP funding). APP physicians who are compensated on an hourly-based contract and have been able to claim their time developing a safety plan as part of their contract are not eligible.
    • Have directly incurred eligible costs related to the development and implementation of a COVID-19 Safety Plan in a community office.

Eligible expenses include:

    • Physician, MOA, and staff time to plan and implement a COVID-19 Safety Plan AND/OR
    • One-time costs such as physical barriers like Plexiglas and/or other office retrofitting/ renovation directly related to a COVID-19 Safety Plan aligned with  COVID-19 safety guidelines developed by WorkSafeBC, BCCDC and the Provincial Health Office with the exception of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

    How payment works:

      • Each eligible physician can make one claim, regardless of the number of offices they work in.
      • Where physicians have a shared office practice with other physicians, each eligible physician can claim the grant.
      • The payment is intended for the physician, not the clinic. If applicable, physicians and clinic operators should determine their own arrangements, based on the discretion and collaboration of doctors working in community clinics.

    Timeline:

      • Payment will be for eligible expenses incurred from March 15, 2020 to January 31, 2021.

    How to apply:

      • Please note: The application deadline for this application closed on January 31, 2021. Unfortunately you can no longer apply.

    For more information: