Canadian woman, 96, puts ad in newspaper to find primary care doctor

Stembolt

‘Seeking a Physician’: 96 and doctorless, N.S. senior turns to the classifieds

Dks01

That’s really about the chronic primary care physician shortage in Canada. If you are ill and go to the hospital, you will be seen by a doctor and treated. No waiting. I won’t have a primary care physician after November, when my GP retires. I have been promised a primary care physician by the Ontario government. Time will tell.

ElQuintron

Dks01 I have been promised a primary care physician by the Ontario government. Time will tell.

It’s good that the province acknowledges this is an issue, but I wish they’d make the office clinic your doctors works out of the first point of contact for a new practitioner.

Dks01

ElQuintron What office clinic? We have Family Health Teams, which are a bit of a joke.

ElQuintron

Dks01 I meant to say office/clinic, but I’d guess they’re no better than what you have going on.

Donoreo

I used the Ontario tool to find a doctor. I had one in a few weeks. This was maybe 7 years ago. Side note: my doctor is in his second career, he had been in IT as a DB2 programmer.

WalterDnes

Walter’s not-so-excellent adventure…

I got a doctor after moving to Toronto for a job promotion in March 1985
He retired end of August 2023
I currently live near Dufferin+Steeles. There was a doctor accepting new patients at Centrepoint Mall (Yonge+Steeles) That’s a 15 minute bus trip; great. (Note: due to having had 4 seizures during my life, I do not have a driver’s licence)
That doctor himself started having medical problems, and announced he’d be retiring July of 2024
The next search was more painful
I went to the CPSO site and used the advanced search tool starting from my address and then extending further out radially.
I’d call up the doctor’s offices, but it seemed that nobody was accepting new patients.
I eventually finally found a doctor near Dufferin St and Rogers Road; a 70 minute bus+subway trip.

I’m constrained by bus service rather than “as the crow flies” distance. With my luck, there are now probably closer new doctors, but I do have prescriptions which I needed signed off so I had to sign up in a timely manner.

px_eliezer_

Stembolt

In the news story, the province says that the woman was not “registered properly”.

That may be BS—the careful writing of the advertisement she posted indicates someone very competent with attention to detail.

Dks01

Donoreo So did I when I learned mine was retiring. None available and taking patients. So I get regular letters from Health Care Connect telling me they are still trying.

Dks01

ElQuintron Our FHT is in a nice, new office building. But you can’t get through on the phone or e-mail. My spouse needed a script renewed and it has taken a week of faxes back and forth between the pharmacy and the doctor and it is still not right.

MichelR

Dks01 What office clinic? We have Family Health Teams, which are a bit of a joke.

Sounds like the Groupes de médecine familiale in Quebec. It’s nice in theory, but people I’ve talked to who are assigned to one are never able to see a doctor.

Sparkchaser

Dks01 That’s really about the chronic primary care physician shortage in Canada.

Is this a shortage of docs or is it docs in that specialty?
My primary just retired and the practice was taken over by another. My primary was a 65ish male that we’ve been going to for 20 years. It’s now a young female. She seems quite competent but hasn’t the knack of juggling patients, so it’s always a wait to get in.

It’s interesting to see other medical systems and their functioning.
I have relatives-in-laws in Ireland and it’s tough there. A friend in England who says the NHS is much better than Ireland. 🙂

Dks01

Sparkchaser it is a shortage of family medicine practitioners.

urbanriot

Sparkchaser

Is this a shortage of docs or is it docs in that specialty?

Here in Ontario we have a shortage of all of the above, all the doctors are leaving for greener pastures. We have a shortage in GPs, neurologists, sleep doctors, etc.. I believe the only specialists that we have enough of are cardiologists.

This CBC article states we’re at a crisis point in all of Canada:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-cure-solutions-for-canadian-doctor-shortage-1.7465633

bjlockie

Dks01 Our FHT is in a nice, new office building. But you can’t get through on the phone or e-mail.

I go to appletree and you can get through to them but the only appointments are virtual and walk ins fill up before noon.
It is good for prescription refills. :-)

bjlockie

Dks01 I have been promised a primary care physician by the Ontario government.

I wish you luck but I don’t have any confidence in Doug Ford.

GrumpyCanadian

bjlockie At this point, I’d take him over our current guy. At least Doug gets some things right some of the time.

px_eliezer_

Sparkchaser A friend in England who says the NHS is much better than Ireland.

As a point of interest, NHS England is quite separate from NHS Scotland, this is similar to Canada in which it is a provincial responsibility, not national.

Yes, the Republic of Ireland has an awful system.

px_eliezer_

Sparkchaser Is this a shortage of docs or is it docs in that specialty?

In both Canada and the USA, there has been much movement towards higher-paying and less-hassle specialties, as opposed to primary care / family medicine.

As far as I know, Canada on a relative basis has fallen behind the USA, in terms of new medical schools, expanded primary care residency programs, and has also fallen behind in the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

The USA also more easily welcomes physicians who have trained in other countries, compared to Canada.

International health professionals face slow accreditation in Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/international-health-professionals-face-slow-accreditation-in-canada-1.7443973

Canada’s doctors can’t practise anywhere in the country due to interprovincial barriers
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/interprovincial-barriers-doctors

Canadian-born doctor gets licence to practise here after 17-month fight
Dr. Stephanie DeMarchi was licensed two days after CBC News profiled her quest to practise in Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-doctor-gets-license-to-practice-1.6912617

WalterDnes

Dks01 So I get regular letters from Health Care Connect telling me they are still trying.

Try the following URL; a lot depends on how well/badly Google geolocates you. Just knowing where nearby doctors are located helps. You’ll have to phone to confirm whether or not they’re really accepting new patients.

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=845c8a95bc995879&q=Family+doctors+near+me+accepting+new+patients&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6z_S4n8-NAxVbFFkFHSt4LZwQ1QJ6BAg6EAE&biw=950&bih=955&dpr=1