Patients of a Charlottetown-area family doctor are looking for alternatives after receiving letters saying they were randomly selected to be removed from the doctor’s patient list. The PEI Medical Society calls it a symptom of an overburdened health care system.
“I was shocked. I had to read it twice,” said Heather McLean, who received a letter from her doctor last month. “My heart went out to him then as well… obviously he’s feeling very stressed and burnt out.”
The June 15 letter from Dr. Mitchell Stewart included the doctor’s candid assessment of his workload and personal stress levels.
“I inherited a very large practice … I carry well over 2,000 [patients]” Stewart wrote. “Over the past few years, the load has increased steadily to the point where it is no longer manageable or sustainable…
“The people around me who care for me are increasingly commenting on the burden that my job puts on me… 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 si… .if I don’t make this change now and keep going at the rate I’m going, I’m going to burn out eventually.”
“This is a terrible situation for both the patients and doctors affected,” said Dr. Padraig Casey, president of the Medical Society of PEI (CBC).
The letter informed patients that they had been randomized and would continue to receive care until mid-August. Stewart consulted with Health PEI and the Canadian Medical Defense Association, according to the letter. The CMPA provides insurance coverage to physicians.
The letter advises patients to register with the Department of Health to get a new family doctor. More than 24,000 people are on the waiting list, which continues to grow, according to data on the province’s website.
McLean expects difficulty in seeing a doctor in the future.
“How would someone feel if they found out that if you’re not well, you have no options but [hospital] emergency clinics and clinics that are under maximum stress,” McLean said. “It’s not a good feeling.”
The president of the PEI Medical Society calls it a “terrible situation” for patients and doctors — the result of years of mounting workloads and now culminating in the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”
“Doctors are extremely stressed and with any stressed person sometimes you really have to cut back,” said Dr. Padraig Casey, president of the province’s medical society. “Sometimes we have to cut back to survive.”
According to Casey, the medical society is seeing an increase in doctors using the counseling and training services provided by the society. These services help doctors deal with stress and workload issues. Other programs also help physicians improve the management and efficiency of their professional practices.
In the long term, family doctors 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 deck chairs on the Titanic,” Casey said.
Health PEI said family doctor offices will evolve into group practices, but the process will take years.
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