History

Origins

The Department of Family and Community Practice is one of the oldest medical departments at Vancouver General Hospital. Its original form existed to make a single connection possible: community general practitioners admitting and caring for their own patients in hospital, using VGH resources to deliver primary care.

In 1986, under Department Head Dr. Alex Cherkezoff, the department articulated its first formal mission — to provide exemplary in-hospital primary care — and defined five qualities of care that remain recognizable in our work today: availability, amiability, continuity, quality, and appropriateness.

That same year, roughly thirty physicians gathered for a full-day planning exercise, establishing a precedent the department has returned to ever since: structured member engagement as the foundation for strategic direction.

Six years later the department returned to the same ground, adopting a formal Statement of Philosophy and a set of departmental goals whose commitments — continuity of care, equal standing for family medicine within the hospital, advocacy for patients, education, and research — read as direct antecedents of the values the department holds today.

Past Leaders

Previous Department Heads:

  • Dr. A.W. Wallace, 1959 – 1976
  • Dr. Alexander Boggie, 1976 – 1979
  • Dr. Alex Cherkezoff, 1979 – 1991
  • Dr. Reinhold Bernat, 1991 – 2002
  • Dr. Norm Stanley, 2002 – 2012
  • Dr. Cynthia Chan, 2012 – 2015
  • Dr. Rod Tukker, 2015 – 2016
  • Dr. David Hall, 2016 – 2022
  • Dr. Vandad Yousefi, 2022 – present

Previous Associate Department Heads:

  • Dr. Vandad Yousefi, 2016 – 2022
  • Dr. Aneesh Vaghadia, 2024 – present

Highlights

1986
  • First formal mission statement and the department’s first planning day
  • Under Department Head, Dr. Alex Cherkezoff, the department articulated a formal mission — to provide exemplary in-hospital primary care. It defined five qualities of care that remain relevant today:
    • Availability – prompt access to primary care for undifferentiated illness
    • Amiability – respectful, patient-centred, culturally responsive care
    • Continuity – the GP as the constant across consultants and facilities
    • Quality – CME, quality assurance, and the GP as patient advocate
    • Appropriateness – safest, simplest, most cost-effective care
1987
  • A medical manpower plan is accepted by the Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) and passed by the Board, setting the department’s staffing structure for the years that follow.
1990
  • A VGH Board retreat and the resulting “Blue Paper” propose a redefinition of family practice’s role at VGH
1992
  • Under Department Head Dr. Reinhold Bernat, the department unanimously adopts a Statement of Philosophy and a revised set of departmental goals, committing in writing to continuity of care, equal departmental standing for family medicine, patient advocacy, quality assurance, education, and research
1993
  • Shaughnessy Hospital closes and 54 physicians join the department
2000
  • In December, a hospitalist service is established within the department to care for patients admitted to VGH and UBC Hospital
2012
  • The department is renamed the Department of Family and Community Practice, broadening its scope to include physicians practicing in Vancouver Community
2013-2014
  • Approximately 70 community physicians join, followed by 35 more from Providence Health Care
2017
  • Vancouver Community (VC) Research Support is established within the department, the department’s first dedicated research infrastructure
2019
  • Two divisions receive formal board approval: the Division of Hospitalist Medicine (nearly two decades after the service itself began), and the Division of Vancouver Community Primary Care
2022
  • A Learning Health Systems programme is established in Vancouver Community, the first such position in community health in Canada
2024
  • The Division of Palliative Medicine is formally established
  • The Departmental Wellness Committee is constituted in March, the first standing wellness committee in the department’s history with governance and an operational budget
2026
  • A Strategic and Quality Planning Day sets four strategic pillars for 2026–2029