Ottawa breast cancer survivor without a family doctor

For one cancer survivor in Dunrobin, losing her primary physician has been a nightmare.

Cheryl Hammond is without a doctor for the first time in her life as she navigates life after cancer.

"I feel very, very vulnerable because I’m a breast cancer survivor and I have follow-ups that I need to have done for mammograms and different type of tests, bone density tests, things like that and now I don’t have a family doctor to manage that," Hammond said.

It’s a crisis that’s worsening across the province as access to a family doctor continues to be a major problem for millions of Canadians.

"We know there’s a significant number of patients who struggle to find access to a family doctor and it’s in the millions," said Dr. Alika LaFontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association. "We know that a quarter of Canadians have difficulty finding a family doctor and of those, millions have difficulty even finding access to care."

Hammond says in July she received notification from her primary physician that she would no longer be a patient within months.

"I went online and registered on a wait list. They called me back and said there is absolutely no family doctors and people have been on a list for over a year and to be expecting to be without a doctor for at least a year," said Hammond.

The 59-year-old is also battling COVID-19.

"You can’t go to the emergencies because the overflow of these family doctors is hitting the emergencies so there’s hours sitting in an emergency, it’s just crazy," Hammond said.

The Canadian Medical Association says factors behind the doctor shortage include burnout, administrative work burden, and stressors on the job.

CTV News reached out to Hammond’s doctor’s office but did not hear back before publishing the story.

Hammond says she has been able to reach her oncologist and believes she will likely have an appointment soon, but she says since getting the news, she had to call a virtual doctor based in Brampton under OHIP to schedule a lab test, which she says was less than ideal.