Renée Ladouceur-Beauchamp is one of these patients. She received an email from the Orléans Family Health Clinic on December 29, telling her that her family doctor, Catherine Montpetit, was closing down her practice there, as would her colleagues Mariem Malak and Nasim Bahramifarid.

I felt abandoned. I was freaking out because I have health issues that require monthly meds, prescriptions, and checkupsshares Ms Ladouceur-Beauchamp.

” It doesn’t make sense to me that three young doctors would all leave and resign at once. »

In their letter to patients, the doctors do not explain why they are closing their practice, but they state that no other doctors at the clinic are accepting new patients.

Doctors advise them to contact Health Care Connect, a provincial program that connects Ontario residents with doctors who are admitting new patients.

CBC news tried to reach the doctors concerned but received no reply. A director at the clinic declined to comment or give an estimate of the number of patients affected, citing privacy concerns.

Ms Ladouceur-Beauchamp says she was told she had to be removed from her doctor’s list before she could be put on the waiting list for a new one.

She’s started the process and thankfully has enough recipes to last through July.

I feel like I live in a country with no healthcare system and I’m on my own to know what I’m going to dosays the latter.

lack of general practitioners

Ottawa-area health teams are working together to address shortage of primary care physicians, says the chief medical officerOntario Archipelago Health Teamdr Elie Skaff.

the organism Ontario Archipelago Health Team is supported by the province and brings together health and community services for eastern Ottawa and parts of eastern Ontario.

According to their latest statistics, there are currently 134,000,000 patients no strings attached In the city. With recent departures and retirements, that number may actually be closer to 150,000, Skaff estimates.

That’s almost more than the population of Kingston or even Guelphcalls he.

Physicians face many pressures, he says, including rising costs of running their practices, patients requiring more complex care, and the reality of sacrificing personal time.

Skaff also notes that GPs who quit put increased pressure on those who keep working. Especially since patients sometimes turn to the already very busy emergency rooms for care.

It is very difficult to decide to stop GP practicehe continues. It’s not new. It’s something that happens over time, not just [pendant] the pandemic.

Skaff said policymakers and frontline healthcare workers need to coordinate their efforts to address the problem.

Any strategy to address the shortage must also take into account the fact that fewer and fewer medical school graduates are choosing general medicine, he adds.

As for Ms Ladouceur-Beauchamp, who also has considerable experience defending community and health services, the experience has given her renewed motivation.

The email, which she received on December 29, inspired her to make a 2023 resolution: campaigning for better access to GPs.

With information from Matthew copper, CBC news