The BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Ministry of Health have produced the BC Care Bundle for Supporting High-Risk Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic and Influenza Season. This infographic provides recommendations for all care providers managing high-risk patients, including primary care practitioners (family physicians and nurse practitioners), for optimizing the comprehensive longitudinal care of these patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and influenza season. The key recommendations were developed with input from BC specialist physicians and family practice leaders. They include encouraging immunization uptake, creating care plans for intercurrent illness with underlying chronic disease, and optimizing chronic disease management. The infographic is available at www.bccdc.ca/Health-Professionals-Site/Documents/Care_Bundle_High_Risk_Patients.pdf [9].

A new GPSC one-time payment will support family physicians who are taking on the additional work of identifying and treating patients with care needs noted in the Care Bundle infographic. The GPSC emailed eligible family doctors in February 2021 with information about registering for the payment. Most eligible family doctors will each receive a one-time payment between $1000 and $1500 based on the number and complexity of their Majority Source of Care (MSOC) patients. The GPSC is providing a total of $6 million for the payments, using unallocated funding from 2020. More information about the one-time payment is available on the GPSC website at https://gpscbc.ca/news/news/new-one-time-payment-bc-care-bundle [10].

To assist physicians in rapidly applying the Care Bundle guidance, the Pathways online resource now includes an easy-to-use algorithm with embedded links. To find the point-of-care algorithm, log in to www.pathwaysbc.ca [11] and select the specialty of “COVID-19” from the blue “Select specialty” tab, or search the word bundle in the search bar. If you do not have Pathways access, send a message to contact-us@pathwaysbc.ca [12].