'This is a crisis:' Growing shortage of doctors in Prince Edward County
There’s a growing problem in Prince Edward County: local doctors are starting to retire, and they’re finding it hard to find replacements.
Dr. Anne Nancekievill has been a physician in the county for decades, and has been leading the charge to solve the problem.
“It’s happening right now. This is a crisis,” she says.
Nancekievill says there are 23 family doctors serving a population of 27,000 people.
Five doctors set to retire in the next year, and another five in the few years after that. Nancekievill says that’s expected to leave more than half the local population without a family doctor.
Kathy Memme is one of those on the waiting list for a physician. She says she’s spent three years looking for one.
“We’re a little worried about this,” she says.
After moving from Toronto to Prince Edward County, and her own long-term doctor retired, she has been sitting on the provincial waiting list.
“I started calling doctors here on Wellington, Picton, Belleville, Trenton. And all they said is ‘Are you on the list?'”
In that time, she said she’s had to visit the emergency room at least once for a minor issue she says should have been handled by a family doctor.
Her and her husband, both in their 60s, have also been forced to travel two and a half hours to downtown Toronto to visit their daughter’s doctor for prescriptions.
“As we’re getting older, what are we going to do if we have to see a physician quickly?”
Nancekievill says one of the reasons it’s been tough to draw new doctors to the county are the skyrocketing housing costs. For those with medical school debt, it can be tough for new graduates to think about relocating.
“We’re competing with a reduced number of family doctors in the pool. In terms of new graduates that are interested in working and living in rural areas, we’re finding it’s becoming harder and harder to recruit people,” she explains.
She says the county has had to vote to offer financial incentives to get people to move here.
Rural medicine is also unique. Doctors care for babies, take shifts in the ER and even can take on palliative care. It can be a tough draw.
But with an aging population in the county, every action is becoming more necessary.
“If we don’t have primary care in our communities then people will get sicker,” says Nancekievill. “So hopefully, we can be able to find those physicians who want to live that life. which is a great life.”
Patientslike Memme are just hoping it happens soon.
“It makes me uneasy,” says Memme. “Because every day is different. Because you don’t know. You don’t know if you’re going to be healthy one day and gone the next.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.