Patients at a Charlottetown area GP are looking for alternatives after receiving letters that had been randomly selected to be removed from the doctor’s patient list. The PEI medical society calls it a symptom of an overloaded healthcare system.
“It surprised me. I had to read it twice,” said Heather MacLean, who received a letter from her doctor last month. “Then my heart felt it too … obviously it feels very stressed and burned.”
Dr. Mitchell Stewart’s letter, dated June 15, included the doctor’s sincere assessment of his workload and levels of personal stress.
“I inherited a very large practice … I carry significantly more than 2000 [patients]Stewart wrote, “Over the last few years, the workload has steadily increased to the point that it is no longer manageable or sustainable …
“People around me who care about me are increasingly commenting on the toll my job entails … it’s not acceptable for me to come home at the end of a long, busy day and not be emotionally available to my family … If I don’t make that change now and keep up the pace, I’ll get tired in the end. “
“It’s a terrible situation for the patients involved and also for the doctors,” says Dr. Padraig Casey, president of the PEI Medical Society (CBC).
The letter informs patients that they were randomly selected and will continue to receive care until mid-August. According to the letter, Stewart consulted Health PEI and the Canadian Medical Protection Association. The CMPA offers insurance coverage to physicians.
The letter advises patients to register with the Department of Health to receive a new GP. More than 24,000 people are on the waiting list, which continues to grow, according to data from the province’s website.
MacLean anticipates difficulties in seeing a doctor in the future.
“How would someone feel when they found out that if you’re not okay, you have no choice but to [hospital] emerging and no-appointment clinics that are completely stressed to the max, “MacLean said.” It’s not a good feeling. “
The president of the Medical Society of PEI calls it a “terrible situation” for patients and doctors, the result of years of growing workload and now culminating in the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How to rearrange the Titanic sunbeds”
“Doctors are extremely stressed and with anyone stressed sometimes work needs to be reduced,” said Dr. Padraig Casey, president of the province’s medical society. “Sometimes we have to downsize to survive.”
According to Casey, the medical society has seen an increase in physicians using the counseling and training services the society offers. These services help doctors deal with stress and workload-related problems. Other programs also help physicians improve the management and efficiency of their professional practices.
In the long run, GPs need to move from “one-handed practices to team-based practices,” Casey said.
“Unless doctors change the way we practice … it’s really like rearranging the Titanic’s loungers,” Casey said.
Health PEI has said that GP clinics will evolve into group practices, but the process will take years.