What orphaned patients need to know

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Readers have asked The Current to explain how to ensure continued health care if their doctor retires. Read on to find out:

• What you need to do now to find a doctor
• How to access other options for non-emergency health care
• What to do about prescription medications
• Physician recruitment in rural Ontario

With two local doctors due to retire this year, chances are that you or someone you know in the Valley will soon join the several hundred “orphaned” patients in our catchment area; i.e. people who are not registered with a family doctor. If you haven’t already talked to your doctor about your health care after he retires, then you should know that there is no “automatic” transfer to a new doctor when your family physician retires. That means obtaining refills for prescription drugs is not automatic, either.

Health Care Connect

If you are already or soon to be “orphaned” the onus is on you to take action to find a new doctor. So first, sign up with Health Care Connect. Register by calling 1-800-445-1822 or Click HERE to visit Ontario.ca/HealthCareConnect      It’s important to do this because:

• Health Care Connect tells the provincial Ministry how many people need doctors in our area.
• It shows our local doctors that patients are waiting.
• It gives the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) a true picture of healthcare needs in the Valley.

But that’s not the only thing you can do. You can also call local doctors directly to see if they keep a waiting list of patients. Despite extremely limited capacity in their practices, several Madawaska Valley doctors are gradually taking on a small number of new patients, as and when they can, to help ease the situation.

Bottom line: You will not automatically get a new doctor unless you take some action yourself.

Family Health Teams

Our immediate area has recently been approved for a Family Health Team (FHT) with funding for nurse practitioners, social work and physiotherapy. Our local doctors hope that once the FHT is operational (currently projected for this fall or early winter), it will be an important asset to alleviate the strain on existing healthcare resources in the Valley. In the meantime, there will be a gap between the retirement dates for some doctors and the time when the FHT is fully operational. So if you need healthcare later this year while you are still on a waiting list for a doctor, it’s worth checking to see if the FHT can help.

Sandra McGrath, Executive Director of the Bancroft FHT, advises that they do not require patients moving to the area to de-roster from their existing doctor located elsewhere in order to get on their waiting list. For example, this might suit someone planning to “retire up to the cottage” but who still has a doctor in the city.  The team currently has a waiting list of over 750 patients waiting for a primary care provider. She points out that the Bancroft FHT is still actively recruiting physicians to the Bancroft area to address the increased patient need.

Walk-in clinics

There is currently no walk-in clinic for non-emergency care in the Valley. However, there are some in Bancroft. Patients must have a valid Health Card to be seen.

• The IDA pharmacy at 90 Hastings Street North has the Good Doctors Bancroft walk-in clinic weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is staffed by Registered Practical Nurses who use telemedicine to videoconference with doctors as needed. This is a viable alternative for prescription refills and is particularly useful for patients who require assessment or whose conditions need to be monitored. Click HERE to visit the GoodDoctors.ca website    or call (613) 704-1245.
• Bancroft FHT hosts a twice-monthly Saturday walk-in clinic staffed by their Registered Nurse Practitioner. While they aim to provide this service on alternate weekends, please confirm dates and times. Click HERE for more details of the Bancroft FHT    or call 613-332-1565 Ext 224.

What about my drugs?

Talk to any Snowbird about the forms they have to fill out to get a winter’s supply of drugs and you will realize that Ontario strictly controls prescription medications. Pharmacists are allowed to do emergency refills of most chronic prescription medications but always with notification to the patient’s doctor.  Pharmacists are not allowed to do emergency refills of narcotic or controlled drugs. Ontario pharmacists may refill a 3-month (100 day) supply of drugs only after 90 days. So if your doctor is retiring, don’t expect to be able to get drugs to “tide you over” until you get a new doctor. Chris Briggs, pharmacist at Lorraine’s Pharmasave, puts it bluntly:

There is no emergency filling of prescriptions for patients when their doctor retires.

For patients who take narcotic medications, McGrath advises the Quinte Health Care North Hastings Hospital at 1­-H Manor Lane in Bancroft plans a Chronic Pain Clinic on Mondays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.  Orphaned patients who live locally and attend the walk-in clinic will be offered the opportunity to attend the Pain Management clinic for follow up and management of pain medications.

Emergency Departments

While the Emergency Department (ED) at St. Francis Memorial Hospital will not turn away people, the ED is not designed to deliver primary care. Therefore, patients whose condition or medication needs require them to be assessed or monitored would be wise to use a walk-in clinic, at least until the FHT has been established. It is important to remember that if you go to the ED for a prescription renewal, the ED staff must give priority to patients in emergency situations.

McGrath advised The Current that Quinte Health Care North Hastings Hospital now has an extra physician on duty 1-5 p.m. All patients will be triaged and seen through the ED.  From 1-5 p.m. there is a second physician scheduled who will manage the walk-in patients on a first-come, first-served basis.  Click HERE to visit the Quinte Health Care North Hastings Hospital website.

Physician Recruitment

We are lucky to live in a province with good health care and to have the advantage of an excellent hospital on our doorstep here in the Valley. But like many regions across Canada, rural communities in Eastern and Northern Ontario suffer from a lack of physicians. This lack was identified in the 1990s and a Physician Recruitment Scheme was established for six municipalities in the immediate area, including the Township of Madawaska Valley.

The doctor shortage continues to affect us and all our neighbours. Despite best efforts and offering beautiful natural surroundings, like most recruiters we have not reached our target. The collaborative environment of our hospital and the planned FHT may help to attract physicians to the Valley.

Orphaned patient checklist

So … if your doctor is retiring, here’s your healthcare checklist:

• Sign up to Health Care Connect as soon as possible.
• Call local doctors to see if you can get on a list.
• Arrange to visit a walk-in clinic for ongoing monitoring/assessment of conditions and for refills of prescription drugs.
• If you experience an emergency, go to the Emergency Department

Editor’s Note: The Current will update this article as more information becomes available.