Stuck in ‘waiting room’ six years without a doc

I am certainly no expert when it comes to the provision of health care at the provincial level. I spent my entire adult life as a member of the Canadian Forces, so provincial health care was somewhat foreign to me.

In the military, I have come to learn that we had a reputation for having the best health-care system in this country, and most would say deservedly so. However, all good things must come to an end, and for me, that was on Oct. 21, 2014. That was my last day in the military; unbeknownst to me, it would also be the last day that I had access to a physician outside of an emergency room.

I moved back to my home province of Nova Scotia upon my release from the Canadian Forces, specifically to the Kingston area in the Annapolis Valley. I had to wait three months before I could apply for an MSI card, as there is a rule somewhere that says because I was released from the military in Ottawa (although I was moving back to Nova Scotia), I needed to apply for Ontario health care for the first three months.

Given this stipulation, I could not get on the “Need a Family Doctor” list upon my release, as one needs a MSI number and I had a OHIP number. So, 90 days later, on Jan. 21, 2015, I applied for an MSI number. Once I received that, I contacted the Annapolis Valley Health Authority and was placed on the “Need a Family Doctor” list. I naively believed that I’d be on that list for about a year at the outset, and then someone would call me and tell me who my doctor was.

As we all know, the Annapolis Valley Health Authority was amalgamated into the newly formed Nova Scotia Health Authority. When that happened, I immediately took steps to ensure that I was placed on the “Need a Family Doctor” list administered by the NSHA. My expectation was that at some point, I would be contacted and assigned a family doctor.

Six years have come and gone. Every few months, I enter my MSI number into the NSHA’S online tool and it confirms that I am still on the list. Next week, I will begin my seventh year on this list. That is not a typo. I have been waiting over six years on a list for a family doctor, and nobody has called me. My MSI card has expired and been renewed, and still, no family doctor in sight. I have contacted NSHA, my MLA, the health minister and the local collaborative practice in the Kingston area at nauseam.

I failed to mention that I was medically released from the Canadian Forces after 30 years of service in places like Syria, Israel and Afghanistan. I am a veteran who was released with medical problems, yet the medical authorities of Nova Scotia seemingly do not care about me.

I have not been sitting on my hands these past six years. I have been asking NSHA why it is they claim nobody on their lists wait longer than three years, yet I am starting my seventh year. They have no plausible explanation, and again, they do not seem to care.

During my time on the waiting list, they actually built a beautiful new collaborative medical clinic right across the street from my house in Kingston. I got excited that I was going to get a doctor because we had a new clinic with three doctors and a nurse practitioner.

The day they opened their doors, they were full. That’s right. A brand new clinic across the street from me opened their doors and immediately told residents of Kingston that they were not accepting any new patients. It seems the doctors assigned to that clinic had either taken on the patient loads of retiring doctors, or had filled their rosters with patients from the next town over, because that is where they were working while they awaited the Kingston clinic being completed.

So here I sit, starting my seventh year on a list that does not work. I have no doctor and, quite frankly, I have given up hope of finding one. You’d be surprised how many people tell me that I should go to the city, or outside of Kings County, to find a doctor, as there are plenty in HRM and other areas who will take new patients.

Think about that. There is a brand new clinic across the street from me. I have been on a list for going on seven years, and I should get in my car and drive a few hours away to get my prescriptions refilled.

I don’t blame the government whatsoever for this mess. I blame the health-care administrators at NSHA and I blame the doctors. By their own admission, the doctors don’t use the list. Why should they? They have people beating their doors down, they have family friends, they have people with connections. They don’t need to go to a list to get their clients, and because they don’t use the list, the list is really just something that gives people false hope ... at least in Kingston.

Michael Hamm lives in Kingston

Michael Hamm stands outside the Kingston Collaborative Family Health Centre with his service dog Storm earlier this week.