THE PUSH FOR MORE DOCTORS, ACCESS TO CARE
TECHNOLOGY MIGHT BRING FUTURE SOLUTIONS, BUT THAT’S OF NO USE NOW
I went to see my family doctor after three days of feeling ridiculously tired.
He examined me while listening to me describe my symptoms.
“I don’t think the tiredness is too serious. Get more sleep,” he said. “But I’m concerned about something else.”
He had discovered an extremely large lump on my neck, just above the collar bone.
The doctor promptly referred me to an ear, nose and throat specialist who removed a benign tumour a few months later.
I consider myself really, really lucky.
But with an estimated 175,000 Atlantic Canadians without a family doctor, I’m wondering how many lumps — or high blood pressure, concerning moles, pneumonias, cancers, etc. — are not getting the attention they require.
Over the past four weeks, SaltWire Network has taken an in-depth look at doctor shortages in Atlantic Canada.
The team — Stu Neatby, Jen Taplin, Glen Whiffen and Nancy King — has endeavoured to outline the scope of the issue and how it affects people, especially those who have been marginalized in society.
They’ve also looked into the fixes being tried by individuals, communities, doctors’ unions, health authorities, medical schools, and more.
Despite those collective efforts, the doctor shortage continues, and is all-too frighteningly real for those without a physician.
There are glimmers of hope for patients, as with the Cape Breton program where paramedics triage during home visits, and there’s the success of the blended pay structure in New Brunswick.
There’s also the promise of technology — numerous wearable devices for monitoring health are on the market and their effectiveness will only improve. (Suggestion: don’t rely on a device until it’s tried and trusted.)
And expect more health authorities to implement technological advances. Telehealth is already a reality across the region, with new initiatives underway, and there are other things coming.
For instance, on Feb. 12, a BBC article explored a report on how technology will change England’s health-care staff.
The research was conducted by Dr. Eric Topol, an American health expert.
His prediction: in a decade, it’s likely patients will stay at home and rarely see family doctors or have out-patient appointments.
Many, the article explained, “will manage their own long-term conditions, for example high blood pressure and lung disease, with wearable devices and sensors, which will be much more effective than occasional appointments with a doctor.”
That’s obviously a futuristic, and for some, a controversial prediction.
Still, emerging technologies will undoubtedly change primary care and, if the health system in England or anywhere else adopts such innovations successfully, other decision-makers will follow suit.
These advances are years away, of course, and of no use to people currently without a family doctor.
While our Deep Dive did not identify a clear remedy for the doctor shortage, it shows that a considerable amount of work is being done to attract physicians and deliver primary care to Atlantic Canadians.
Hopefully those efforts will pay off and people will get the care they need, and worrying things — like a strange lump in the neck — will be addressed in a timely manner.