From the CBC:
“Veteran on long-term
disability waiting for family doctor since 2011”
(Matt Dobson at his home gym.
Dobson signed up for the province's patient registry list when he moved to
P.E.I. in 2011 after being medically discharged from the navy._
A Canadian navy veteran says he's
fed up with waiting for a primary care provider after having been on Prince
Edward Island's wait-list for 11 years. Matt Dobson moved to P.E.I. in 2011
after being medically released from the navy when he was diagnosed with
depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been a member of the
armed forces for more than a decade. Dobson first signed up for the province's
patient registry back then. But after not hearing anything for eight years, he
decided to call the province in 2019 to check when he would finally have access
to a primary caregiver. "They told me that my name was no longer on the
list. That they'd removed everyone off of the list that were above four years.
So I had to put my name back on the list and start new again," Dobson
said. "I was pretty upset for sure. There was no call. No notification at
all ... They told me that I would have got an email or a letter at the time. I
went back and looked at all the records. I couldn't find anything." After
that call, he said he contacted about two dozen doctors to see if they were
taking patients at the time. But he had no luck. He and his fiancée, Angie
Brighty, said it's been exhausting trying to get the care they require. "We've
gone to emergency rooms together and waited for hours and hours and hours to
see a doctor," Brighty said. "The
walk-in clinics — which is OK for what it's meant for ... But for someone with
a history like Matt has and who needs someone to take the time to review his
history and find out what his needs are, the walk-in clinic doesn't even come
close to meeting his needs."
'This can't go on one more
day' Dobson said he incurred depression and PTSD after serving in the
Persian Gulf in 2005. He said his life is still "a daily battle." "I
have good days and bad days," he said. "It's always constantly there:
daily struggles to look after myself, to do even the easiest tasks. When I have
my bad days, it's pretty much paralyzing." Dobson is currently on
long-term disability and has been unable to work in the last two years because
of his condition. Matt might not be here tomorrow if no one steps up to
help. He goes to walk-in clinics to get prescriptions and blood work
done, and got a psychiatrist through Veterans Affairs who monitors his
medication and also helps him with talk therapy. While he said he
currently has more good days than bad ones, there have been periods when he's
been suicidal. Brighty said not having a family doctor can be dangerous. "This
can't go on for one more day," she said. "Because Matt might not be
here tomorrow if no one steps up to help. It's terrifying."
Thousands still on wait-list The
patient registry list in P.E.I. is currently 23,000 names long and is set to
get even longer. Health P.E.I.
has said that the recently announced departures of at least three family
doctors in the Charlottetown area will affect more than 5,000 patients, which
it said will certainly add more names to the wait-list. In an email
statement, the agency said they do not remove patients on the registry list
after four years and that Islanders are assigned a health-care provider in
chronological order. It said 11 years is definitely longer than the
usual wait time, though these also depend on the region the person selected as
their preferred location for their primary caregiver. In the Queens region, the
average wait is eight years. For Dobson, the long wait-list is proof the
P.E.I. health care system is broken. "I don't see any end out of it
right now. Like, it just keeps [growing into] a deeper hole," he said. "It's
sad because I know that there's so many people like me that are struggling and
need primary care and someone that they can count on for to book appointments
and see. And I just don't see any way out of it here in the near term."
^ No one needing help should be
forced to wait years. That is especially true for Soldiers and Veterans. Prince
Edward Island and the Canadian Government have failed Matt Dobson and others
like him and should be ashamed of themselves. They are literally risking the
lives of Men and Women with their disorganization and backlogs. ^
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