LETTER: It's hard to find physician in Sault Ste. Marie

SooToday received the following letter from Carrie Van Staveren about obtaining a family physician in Sault Ste. Marie.
 
Our family currently resides in Sault Ste. Marie after having moved here in 2021.

We have a physician in our former home area, which is over 700 km away, but we are unable to sign on with a physician in this area. 

In order to be added to a waiting list, folks must first disconnect through Health Care Connect from their current physician. In doing this, folks no longer have a primary physician. It takes approximately 10 days to be disconnected from a current health-care provider.

Once the disconnect has happened, folks can now be added to a waiting list.

Not one official I contacted would or could confirm the wait list time. Through friends, I have heard anywhere from five to seven years to obtain the services of a physician, if at all.

In the meantime, I was told by Health Care Connect that I should try a walk-in clinic or the hospital once I was disconnected.

To add insult to this process, if an individual wanted to apply for the Northern Health Travel Grant, they have to be referred to an out-of-area hospital by a Northern Ontario physician, only you can't get a doctor for apparently years.

The government can throw all the funds they want at the health care system, but until the policy to obtain a physician is changed, folks will be unable to even apply to have one at all.

When the premiers get together to discuss the ills plaguing the health-care system, they first should take a hard look at the policies they have in place to even obtain one.

Carrie Van Staveren
Sault Ste. Marie