Principles of MOCAP. The Government and Doctors of BC adopt the following principles for MOCAP:
(a) MOCAP is designed to meet the medical needs of new or unattached patients requiring emergency care. By definition, a new or unattached patient is not a patient of any physician participating in a call group. For clarity, in rural communities where a physician or a call group are providing additional services such as emergency, obstetrics/gynecology, anesthesia or general surgery, then patients of the physician or call group presenting for such additional services will be considered as a new patient of that additional service.
(b) The Health Authorities are responsible for managing within their MOCAP allocation and decisions as to the specific nature and quantity of on-call availability services required rests ultimately with the Health Authorities. A Health Authority’s decision to establish a MOCAP arrangement is made following consultation with physicians.
(c) MOCAP arrangements may require availability to attend more than one site where clinically appropriate and may permit the availability to be provided in a manner consistent with advancements in technology.
(d) MOCAP provides compensation for physician availability according to the relative burden of providing such availability. MOCAP is not meant to compensate physicians for actual services to patients.
(e) Physicians who are on-call must respond to telephone calls in a timely way to determine clinical urgency and attend to the emergent needs of patients.
(f) Physicians who are on-call must respond to telephone calls not just from the location(s) where they are on-call, but from other locations and physicians.
(g) Decisions on MOCAP should reflect a consistent rationale across all Health Authorities and payments for being on-call should be based on objective data and information that reflect the burden of providing on-call services.
(h) MOCAP arrangements must be sustainable and must not contribute to physician burnout. In some circumstances, physicians may provide partial on-call availability to meet this principle.
(i) Health Authorities must appropriately fund the call groups that are established under MOCAP. Health Authorities should not prorate MOCAP payments (i.e. pay a lesser amount for the coverage required than is appropriate) in order to try to extend their MOCAP budget.
(j) There are separate and independent obligations through Health Authority by-laws and rules and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC’s...
