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“I never imagined it. I always hoped it would be the doctor who would retire with patients I’ve known for 35 years. Getting to the point where I’m willing to leave is a big deal. It’s big business.”
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June 5, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 4 minutes of reading • 13 comments Dr. Nicole Shadbolt, Sunday, June 5, 2022. Shadbolt and others say the system does not work for GPs, many of whom are running out, or for patients who are not well served. Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia
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Dr. Nicole Shadbolt of Ottawa has had enough.
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About 10 years after starting a family medicine practice, the 41-year-old doctor will close his Riverside Drive office in early July, leaving about 1,500 patients in search of a family doctor.
This search may not be easy.
Shadbolt says he knows of at least four family doctors over the age of 40 who will close their internships over the next six months, and as others have noted, there are likely to be more thoughts.
“View post after post on the Ottawa Private Doctors Facebook group about family practices that close without finding a replacement doctor,” Ottawa doctor Dr. Yoni Freedhoff tweeted.
And Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth of Ottawa, known for a great practice in the city center that includes many vulnerable patients, as well as her advocacy work, said she is also reaching the end of her rope with the system. .
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Shadbolt and others say the system does not work for GPs, many of whom are exhausted, or for patients who are not well cared for at a time when the need has never been greater.
Ottawa Center’s newly elected NDP MP Joel Harden said one of the most common concerns he heard during the campaign was that people could not find a GP, although the province says the Center of Ottawa is not neglected. He said it will be something he will focus on after the election.
Shadbolt and others warn that the situation is likely to get worse as more privatizations are introduced into Ontario’s health care and the depleted health care system becomes more tense.
“No more stretching in the system.”
Dr. Nicole Shadbolt near her home in Ottawa on Sunday, June 5, 2022. Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia
Shadbolt says she’s exhausted, she spends half her time on paperwork, or she defends patients who wait too long to see specialists and get treatment, and she can’t do it anymore.
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“I never imagined it. I always hoped it would be the doctor who would retire with patients I’ve known for 35 years. Getting to the point where I’m willing to leave is a big deal. It’s big business.”
She said her husband had been interested in applying for a place abroad, but Shadbolt always said she could not give up her medical practice. He now feels unable to continue working and the couple and their two children are leaving for Bangladesh this summer. He said he hopes to do some medical work while he is there and that he will then find out what his next step is when he finishes posting.
Among the stressors of GPs is that the system has slowed down so much that patients wait longer to see specialists, get tested, or receive treatment for health problems. While they remain in limbo, their primary caregivers try to treat, support, and defend them.
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Shadbolt said the pandemic has shed light on the problems that have been there all along.
“I think everyone wants to blame the pandemic, but before the pandemic, I felt burned out.”
He fears that with the majority of the Conservative progressive government following the recent Ontario election, there will be more privatization.
“I really think that anyone who is looking at the healthcare system right now is completely stupid or there is a goal to take advantage of resources and emphasize it to the point that the public is more willing to accept privatized options. I’ve had patients who they ask me if there is any way to pay and it breaks my heart, “he said.
“I think that’s where we’re going. I think that’s a tragedy and the moral damage to those of us who work that we believe everyone has a right to health care is huge.”
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Kaplan-Myrth also said he fears that patients who cannot afford to travel distances to see a doctor and could not afford further privatizations, as well as a growing number who do not have a primary caregiver.
He said he is unsure of his own future because of the way the Ontario health care system finances family doctors. Recently, the province has reopened the door to new family health organizations, in which doctors are paid essentially for salary instead of fee for service.
Archive Photo: Ottawa Family Physician Dr. NiliKaplan-Myrth. Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia
Kaplan-Myrth said he works 60 hours a week as a paying doctor and would like to be part of an organization, but strict regulations on where and how they can be established make it difficult.
He said Ottawa needs another family medicine practice in the city center, but that it is easier to establish a family health organization in areas that are considered most needed. In Ottawa, these areas are located primarily in the suburbs of the city and not in the core.
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Essentially, he said he has the option of moving to a new office well outside of downtown Ottawa, where most of his patients live, or trying to create his own at great cost and financial risk.
“My options are to keep charging for the service until I stay or leave, I won’t continue for the next decade unless I can find some way to join a family health team.”
Kaplan-Myrth, whose office is located in a building owned by Glebe, said he had written to the Ministry of Health asking to be notified and considered part of a family health team while was staying at its current location. Provincial regulations would require it to be moved.
Kaplan-Myrth said people looking for a GP are constantly approaching her. During the pandemic, he organized “jabapalooza” events in downtown Ottawa, even on the street outside his office, where thousands of people were vaccinated.
He said there is a push for doctors to get involved in large private companies that offer virtual care at a cost, which he said many of his patients could not afford. But that will probably be more common as more doctors retire or leave without anyone to replace them.
“This is an insidious privatization that people don’t even know is going on,” he said.
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