A Nova Scotia veteran’s battle to have an injury acknowledged by Veterans Affairs has stalled after his family doctor retired.

Bill MacKay says he sustained a neck injury when he was in the navy. Documents show the Department of National Defence acknowledges the incident happened, but says it wasn’t the cause of MacKay’s neck injury.

MacKay says Veterans Affairs has rejected his injury twice. He was working with a lawyer on a third - and final - appeal, but much of the paperwork has to be filled out by his family doctor, who retired in December.

“He said he would do it right away, and I figured a couple of months, three months, maybe,” says the Middle Sackville, N.S. resident.

When he failed to receive the paperwork, MacKay’s lawyer withdrew the appeal, not wanting to jeopardize his last chance.

With the province facing a doctor shortage, Progressive Conservative MLA Tim Houston says he has heard of similar cases in which a constituent needed access to a doctor for medical treatment, or in MacKay’s case, to fill out some paperwork, but they were unable to find one.

“It’s really holding people back in many ways, and it’s tough,” says Houston. “They come into your office and you don’t have, you can’t tell them where to go to get it, and it’s frustrating for everyone.”

Last month, 3,433 names were added to Nova Scotia’s doctor waitlist, which brought the new total of Nova Scotians in need of a family doctor to an all-time high of 47,669 people.

Nova Scotia Health Minister Randy Delorey says doctors who are looking for patients do not get to pick and choose who they want off that list, and that the province is aware of the growing number of doctors retiring.

“We are continuing our recruitment efforts for Metro and for all of the province,” says Delorey.

As for MacKay, his paperwork was finally filled out, but not before his case was withdrawn.

Now he has to start the appeal process all over again, while continuing to search for a new family doctor.

“You’re up against the system and the system never loses,” says MacKay. “I feel so demeaned it’s not funny.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Laura Brown