Thousands more Halifax-area patients soon to be without a family doctor

More than 4,000 patients in the Halifax area will soon be without a doctor once two long-time family physicians in Spryfield retire.

Dr. Mary O’Neill of Novas Medical is spending her last few weeks seeing patients in an office surrounded by thank-you cards. But it’s not how she wanted her career to end.

“Having to walk away from 2,500 patients and when they ask 'who’s going to do my prescriptions?' We don’t have any answers for them,” said O’Neill.

Two clinics, side-by-side in Spryfield -- Novas Medical and the Spryfield Family Medicine Clinic -- are each losing a family doctor. Both say they feel overworked.

Dr. Margaret Rowicka of the Spryfield Family Medicine Clinic said she's retiring earlier than expected.

“I’m retiring with a very heavy heart because I feel so sorry and guilty even for my patients,” Rowicka said.

“I’ve been their family doctor for over 30 years. They don’t know what they’re going to do and some of the patients are so complex that really, truly, I do not believe they’ll be able to manage their health.”

Factor in an aging population, the complex needs of their patients and long wait lists to see specialists -- these doctors say the workload of a family physician is much greater now than it once was.

“Trying to get appointments, access with specialists, it’s not once we have to refer. Sometimes it’s twice. Sometimes it’s three times,” said O’Neill.

The doctors describe taking on the role of social workers, psychiatrists, administrators and other specialists because it takes so long to see a specialist.

"That's been really overwhelming," Rowicka said.

They’ve tried to recruit new doctors through advertisements, physician organizations and Nova Scotia Health. But so far, there’s been no replacement.

“Actively we are recruiting to replace the physicians who are retiring. That work is ongoing,” said Michelle Thompson, Nova Scotia’s health minister.

Their retirements comes as a clinic in Halifax’s south end, which serves about 4,000 patients, announced it is closing in August after not finding a replacement physician to take over patients.

About a quarter of family doctors in Nova Scotia are over 60 years old.

Nova Scotia Health data shows from last April to the end of February, the province gained 20 more family doctors than it lost.

But, at the same time, the waitlist for a family doctor or nurse practitioner ballooned from 88,359 to 137,587 patients.

The population has grown, but Rowicka pointed to another contributing factor that may be causing the waitlist to grow: retiring physicians also carry a higher patient load than new family medicine graduates do.

“For each of us retiring, now you need to hire 1.5 or two doctors,” she said.

Rowicka and O’Neill think the model they work under isn’t attractive for younger physicians and believe a collaborative care model would best serve their patients in Spryfield.

“When there is a social worker, dietician, there is a family practice nurse and the physicians,” Rowicka said.

O’Neill also believes more doctors are needed.

“There are plenty of Canadians who’ve trained abroad,” said O’Neill. “They’d be willing to come home, they just have to be welcomed home.”

Rowicka said she’s been trying to call colleagues to ask them to take her patients -- even if it’s only five or 10 at a time -- but many doctors can’t take on anyone else.

“If I had a doctor to take 50 per cent of my patients, I would continue probably for another two or three years,” said Rowicka. “But I just can’t do it the way it is now. I cannot work 12 hours every day.”