Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice

09/04/2025

Exciting news! Foundry Sunshine Coast has a home! We’re thrilled to share that Foundry Sunshine Coast has officially found its location. Our new centre will be right in the heart of downtown Sechelt, in the former Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Wharf Avenue and Cowrie Street.

Foundry is a safe, youth-friendly space where young people ages 12–24 can access mental health care, physical health care, peer support, and work and education support – all under one roof. While our physical doors aren’t open yet, youth and families can already connect with Foundry BC’s virtual services through the Foundry BC app, available now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Pictured here are Foundry Manager Myriam Juda and Nievelina Carmona, Indigenous Youth and Caregiver Engagement Facilitator (along with SCCSS unofficial mascot Ruby), outside the new location.

To celebrate this milestone, we’ll be hosting a “We’ve got a spot” site celebration in September – stay tuned for all the details!

08/29/2025

Vancouver Coastal Health is notifying people who dined at Sea Monkey Coffee — located onsite at Sunday Cider in Gibsons (1632 Sunshine Coast Hwy.) — about a possible exposure to hepatitis A from Aug. 1 to 25 inclusive.

Note: this notification is only for people who dined at Sea Monkey Coffee on the noted dates. It is not intended for customers of any other business at the address, including Sunday Cider, or for people who dined at Sea Monkey Coffee outside these dates. People who consumed only drinks from this venue are also not at risk of exposure.

Symptoms of hepatitis A include:

• Feeling very tired
• Feeling sick to your stomach and not feeling hungry
• Losing weight without trying
• Pain on the right side of the belly, under the rib cage (where your liver is)
• Fever
• Sore muscles
• Yellow skin and eyes (jaundice), dark urine, and clay-coloured stools

Getting immunized with one dose of hepatitis A vaccine can help to prevent infection if given within two weeks of exposure. Therefore, VCH recommends anyone who dined at Sea Monkey Coffee from Aug. 14 to 25 receive a hepatitis A vaccine as soon as possible.

A free dose of hepatitis A vaccine is available for those who are eligible at clinics and pharmacies throughout the VCH region.

A current list of locations — as well as information about causes, tests, treatments and prevention — can be found at https://www.vch.ca/en/health-topics/hepatitis-a.

08/27/2025

CBT Skills Foundations In Person Group!

Check out all the details with the below link or in poster

https://divisionsbc.ca/sites/default/files/Divisions/Sunshine%20Coast/CBT/CBT_Mind_Space_September_2025.pdf

08/08/2025

MINDFULNESS GROUP MEDICAL VISITS FOR ADULTS

WHEN: September 29th - November 24th | MONDAYS

HOW TO REGISTER:
Talk to your primary care provider to get referred to the program

Download poster here:https://divisionsbc.ca/sites/default/files/Divisions/Sunshine%20Coast/Mental_Health/Mindfulness%20poster%20v.2_Fall%202025%20groups.pdf

08/08/2025

📰 This Week’s Just Ask Column in the Coast Reporter : How to Access Healthcare and Find a Family Doctor on the Sunshine Coast?

Many Sunshine Coast residents don’t currently have a family doctor — but there are ways to access care and support in the meantime. From registering with the Health Connect Registry to using local health services and telehealth options like Avee, there are steps you can take while you wait, including reaching out for help navigating the system.

💻 Use sc.fetchbc.ca to explore local healthcare services in your area.

🔍 This overview is not comprehensive — we recommend contacting local health organizations directly for the most up-to-date info.

📖 Read the full article: https://resourcecentre.ca/just-ask-how-to-access-healthcare-and-find-a-family-doctor-on-the-sunshine-coast/

Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice Pender Harbour Health Centre

07/24/2025

MedTalks is a health and wellness educational event series produced by Sechelt Hospital Foundation in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health, various subject matter experts, local staff and resources available here on the Sunshine Coast.

07/16/2025

07/11/2025

06/11/2025

Award of Excellence in Rural Medicine—Lifetime Achievement - Dr. Karen Forgie

A rural doctor who has made outstanding contributions to family medicine to improve the health care of British Columbians throughout her career is being recognized.

Dr. Karen Forgie is a medical leader based in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast, where she worked as a family doctor from 1993 to 2022. She continues to be a staunch advocate for change, for both patients and family doctors in the province.

In her home community of Sechelt, she has been an active participant in medical affairs— for example, coordinating and recruiting consultant specialists to provide remote clinics to rural patients, saving patients the time, cost and stress of travel. At the provincial level, Dr. Forgie was elected to the role of President of BC Family Doctors (BCFD). This was during a momentous time as the organization transitioned from being known as the Section of General Practitioners (SGP) to BC Family Doctors. This also culminated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia acknowledging family physicians as specialists in primary care—a recognition that Dr. Forgie advocated for decades.

She is the chair of the BCFD economics committee and is leading another momentous task: modernization of the entire family practice fee-for-service payment schedule. She was also a representative on the Worksafe BC negotiating committee and helped create updated forms and processes that reflect the workflows of actual family physicians in practice. She created and led billing education sessions on LFP and will do similar for the upcoming fee-for-service work.

More recently, she has been involved with the Health Data Coalition committee which is working hard to embed quality improvement in family physician practices utilizing their EMRs. This work is essential to improve clinical care outcomes and physician satisfaction. Her ability to share this message as small community physician is crucial so that other rural physicians can see themselves expand into quality improvement work.

Dr. Tahmeena Ali, chair of BCFD, had high praise for Dr. Forgie. She said: “Dr. Karen Forgie has been a positive and influential force in the British Columbian family medicine landscape for decades.”

Her role at the provincial level has not stopped her from continuing to advocate for her community of Sechelt. She was able to assist with recruiting new physicians to the area, helping to ensure the stability of care for patients there.

Drs Jennifer and Julie Baxter, family physicians in Sechelt, said before Dr. Forgie retired from family practice in 2022, she was a role model for colleagues. “She modeled comprehensive longitudinal primary care, ensuring her patient’s needs are met in the community, in their homes, and when needed, in the hospital and Long-Term care settings.”

They wrote: “Dr. Forgie is a force to be reckoned with. Her heart and soul have been poured into her work over the course of her impressive career. When she sees inequity and injustice, she is a powerful voice and advocate for change. Always acting from a place of respect and deep care, Dr Forgie has been a role model for her colleagues for decades.”

Dr Forgie said that she would urge other rural doctors to join organizations where they can advocate for change. She said: “I realized, as time has gone on, that I do have some input, some knowledge, and some skills that I can share.

“One of the biggest things that I would recommend to my colleagues is that they need to find a little place where they can lead. Because their interests, their knowledge is valuable. And we need more and more physicians in leadership roles at the community level, at an organizational level, and all the way up to a government level, to be able to improve the health care of all of our communities.” Rural Coordination Centre of BC - RCCbc Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia

06/10/2025

⚓⚕ 🇨🇦 Sechelt doctor Maj. Dr. Paul Dhillon deployed on several international military exercises with allied forces. Currently deployed aboard His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ville de Québec he will be spending time in the company of many of our allies and partners, experiencing his longest deployment, learning about shipboard life, meeting other sailors, experiencing the multi-national environment, and learning more about naval medicine, naval warfare and naval history.

⚓⚕ 🇨🇦 Sechelt doctor Maj. Dr. Paul Dhillon deployed on several international military exercises with allied forces. Currently deployed aboard His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ville de Québec he will be spending time in the company of many of our allies and partners, experiencing his longest deployment, learning about shipboard life, meeting other sailors, experiencing the multi-national environment, and learning more about naval medicine, naval warfare and naval history.

Op REASSURANCE is the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) largest overseas mission, contributing to NATO deterrence and defense measures in Central and Eastern Europe; Op AMARNA is Canada’s contribution to strengthening peace and security in the Middle East; and Op HORIZON is Canada’s forward-presence mission to the Indo-Pacific region to promote peace, stability, and the rules-based international order.

: Captain Christine MacNeil / Royal Canadian Navy / Canadian Armed Forces

06/03/2025

June is National Indigenous History Month. This month, we acknowledge the culture, traditional knowledge, and achievements of Indigenous Peoples, and encourage everyone in their journey toward Indigenous Specific Anti-Racism and .