Paul Huras is the executive director of the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) which controls funding for 126 health groups in Eastern Ontario. He admits that there is a chronic shortage of doctors in the area, and offers this advice to people who live out here and don't have a doctor:
1. Contact the department of family medicine at Queen's University in Kingston - they may know of some recent graduates who have set up in the Quinte area and are accepting patients.
2. Call local doctors, of which there are about 75 in the Hastings-Prince Edward counties area. Sometimes a doctor will be able to take four or five patients but does not advertise the fact because the office would get hundreds of telephone calls.
3. Write to local family doctors, explaining "anticipated health-care" needs. This method was used by a person new to the area as an employee of the South East LHIN office in Belleville and it worked, Huras said.4. Go to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website, where there is a listing of family doctors and whether they are taking on new patients.
It's hard not to laugh when I read this list. Canadians smugly defend their health-care system as a model that the rest of the world (specifically the US) should emulate, but we have health service in Eastern Ontario on a level with parts of the Third World, and you have to beg to be taken on by a local physician. When I moved out here from Toronto, I waited six years to get on a local physician's caseload, and that was only after I assured her that I was in excellent health and was unlikely to use her services very often. It is not uncommon for patients here to be chosen by lottery when a new physician moves to the area.
Michael Moore should have brought his Sicko film crew out to Belleville for a real snapshot of health care in Canada.
4 comments:
When we moved to Montague Township 6 years ago, we could not find a family physician. No problem, so long as only minor issues come up from time to time... but when my wife became pregnant she had to spend two solid days phoning every practice within 100km and begging to be taken on. Of the 100 or so doctors she called, two said 'maybe', and one of those called back later to say no and the other never did. Only one practice, in Ottawa, took pity on her and saved her from 'pregnancy by emergency room'.
Well, I live in rural eastern Ontario and if you don't have a doctor where I live - we have a wonderful walk-in clinic and of course, the hospital.
It's not the crisis you are making it out to be. Problem - doctors want to practice in the big cities and it's hard to attract them to the rural areas.
Anonymous: I beg to differ. Walk-in clinics & hospital emergencies are great for acute or emergency care like broken limbs & one-off infections, but they are no substitute for the long-term care & tracking provided by a family physician who is personally responsible for your care. I'm talking about ongoing care for things like heart disease, hypertension, depression, pediatric care, and as Clive points out, obstetrics. I relied on a hospital emergency dept. for six years for treatment of a minor but chronic condition - I saw a different doctor every time (usually a medical student doing a residency). They had no knowledge of my medical history & kept no ongoing records of my treatment, and usually relied on MY advice on how to treat me. Hospitals & walk-in clinics, wonderful as they may be, are a very poor substitute for a family doctor. There IS a crisis in health care in rural Eastern Ontario, whether you choose to recognize it or not.
Walk in clinics? I would rather take my car in for an oil change than take a family member to any walk in clinic, those clinics are gross, whereas the local Honda dealer has a pleasant waiting area. The local hospital here is gross too btw.
Perhaps a new Cricket pitch would attract doctors? There's lots of money for that.
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