The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association says government has to immediately come up with a plan to increase the number of family physicians in the province as health outcomes are being affected.
Dr. Allison Drover, a GP in Torbay, says she is now booking appointments two weeks out whereas a year ago it was three or four days at worst.
Dr. Susan MacDonald, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, says the current situation is the result of years of poor planning. Some 90,000 people are without a family doctor and MacDonald says some physicians are unable to find locums to fill in.
In some situations, one or two physicians in an area with four may just have to take that break, leaving a smaller number to carry the load. She says it’s untenable but that’s what’s happening now, especially in central Newfoundland where she sees a crisis unfolding.
Dr. MacDonald says things like telemedicine and using nurse practitioners are great, but you still have to have a physician to make that work.
She says we need an overall strategy so that we know where there will be retirements and where the worst trouble is going to be ten years from now.