8,000 patients will soon be without a family doctor as six doctors retire in Kingston, Ont.
In just a matter of weeks, thousands of people in Kingston, Ont. will not have a family doctor.
Six physicians from a downtown clinic are set to retire, and no replacements are set to take over.
Inside the Frontenac Medical Associates office, the waiting room holds official letters from the office, listing the doctors who will no longer be practising as of May 27.
Patient Jenna Ayoub is one of those who will be affected. She says she was notified in a letter earlier this year that her physician, Dr. Nicholas Cristoveanu, would be one of those doctors.
"Upsetting," Ayoub says of the situation. "He is fantastic."
In all, six doctors are set to retire, leaving 8,000 patients without one.
Ayoub explains that she has been going to Dr. Cristoveanu for decades, and her husband and daughters use the clinic.
Getting emotional during the interview with CTV Ottawa News, she says Dr. Cristoveanu deserves retirement and is a wonderful physician, but she is also concerned about joining the list of those who no longer have one.
"Terrifying in the sense that I also have two children that it’s like, ‘Oh, what do I do with you now?’ 17 and 13, 'where do I take you if you suddenly get sick?’ I’ve never had to use the emergency room for anything other than a broken bone."
A study released in 2020, completed by Kingston Area Health Care Taskforce and the Kingston Community Health Centre, showed 29,000 people in the city don’t have a local doctor.
Dr. Cristoveanu has been practising for more than 40 years. He says many of the other retiring doctors at the Frontenac Medical Clinic began their practice together.
They have been searching for replacements for at least five years, with no success.
“Putting ads in the medical journals, talking to residents, doing recruiting services, looking overseas, to attract family doctors to eventually take over,” Dr. Cristoveanu says of the process. "But unfortunately, it reached a tipping point where we couldn’t find anybody."
The city’s $2 million program to recruit new doctors has resulted in nine new family physicians moving here, but those doctors have only been able to cover other retirements and not take on new patients.
It’s a province-wide problem, not enough family doctors are graduating to replace those retiring.
"We’re very worried about what happens to our patients," Dr. Cristoveanu says. "That’s probably our biggest worry and why we delayed until we had to, in a way, to call it."
The clinic will have just two doctors by the end of May, so a wing of the office will close in the next few weeks.
Ayoub says her doctor deserves a peaceful retirement, but wonders about the future of healthcare for thousands of patients in Kingston.
"Everybody deserves a physician,” she says.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Train derailed in Sarnia after colliding with a truck
Police are investigating after a transport truck collided with a train in Sarnia.
Fewer medical students going into family medicine contributing to doctor shortage
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.