DND is loath to monitor reservist health: official

OTTAWA — Canada’s military ombudsman has found that National Defence is reluctant to conduct regular health assessments on reservists because more than one-third of them have no family doctor — and if they’re sick it would be the department’s responsibility to care for them.

Gary Walbourne’s latest report shows only four of the military’s 18 field ambulance units, which are responsible for part-time soldiers, are conducting exams, and that the vast majority of them are not properly equipped to carry out the job.

He said the detachments are understaffed and often don’t have access to the military’s central medical database.

The report comes at the same time as questions are being raised about the health of Canadian Rangers who patrol the Far North.

Since reservists are part-time members, the expectation has been that they are to seek care under their provincial health systems, even though the military requires them to be medically fit to deploy at all times.

Walbourne has outlined several areas of concern, including the social-legal liability for socalled “orphan patients” with no family doctor.

“The Canadian Forces health services group’s legal advisers contend that if a reservist requires follow-up care as a result of an issue discovered dur- ing a [periodic health assessment], the DND/CAF must refer them to a family physician,” said the report. “If the member does not have a doctor, the DND/CAF should assist them in finding a physician, or a clinic, which can provide follow-up care. If a resource cannot be found, then the DND/CAF is responsible for providing care to the member.”

The department recognizes it could be an enormous drain on resources “as [the military’s] clinicians either spend time helping reservists access follow-up care or take on the care themselves. As such, some health services centres that have difficulties meeting current demand may become overwhelmed.”

Roughly 38 per cent of reserve soldiers report not having a family doctor. Of the sizable contingent of troops deployed to fight wildfires in Saskatchewan last summer, almost 80 were reservists.

Maj. Holly Brown, a spokeswoman for National Defence, said part-time soldiers wounded in the line of duty receive care under the military health system without question.

But when it comes to the central issue of conducting health assessments, she said the department conducted a pilot program in which some field ambulances administered the exams for one class of reservists.

But it “found they are lacking the capacity/resources to meet the full demand” of the entire Primary Reserve.