Summerside patients call on province to act quickly, after losing their family doctor

After learning their doctor is closing his Summerside practice due to "increasingly challenging" issues with P.E.I.'s health-care system, some patients are calling on the province to step up and fix the problems — quickly.

Dr. Hal McRae sent a letter to his patients dated Feb. 7, saying he had made the "very difficult and heartbreaking decision" to close his practice on April 20.

"It has become increasingly challenging to care for patients within the current system, and for me it is no longer sustainable," he wrote.

The doctor's 2,100 patients will be added to P.E.I.'s registry of more than 27,400 people already waiting for a family doctor.

Bev Cornish became McRae's patient four years ago after her original family doctor retired. She was devastated to receive his letter this month.

"The fact that he's not getting the support he needs to maintain his practice is not good. It's wrong. The government needs to step up and fix this," she said.

"There's some serious issues there that need to be addressed.  And to lose a young, thriving doctor in the crisis we're in is unbelievable."

Cornish has started a letter-writing campaign, urging Islanders to write to Premier Dennis King and Health Minister Ernie Hudson asking that the province provide McRae with the support he needs.

"He could be the turnaround for the health-care system, if we handle this correctly and support him in whatever needs he has," she said. "Maybe he'll come back."

Another patient of McRae's, Paul White, had a heart attack just a few weeks ago and said he's "absolutely blown away" by the news his doctor is leaving. But he says the signs were there. 

"I could see the strain on him. I could see the pressure on him. I worried about him, and I told him so," he said.

"If there was something they could do to help him, or something they could do to help all of us, make the system better for everybody; if they could make the clinics more structurally useful than they are, I think it would help the doctors, it would help the people."

In a statement to CBC News on Monday, Health P.E.I. said it does offer options to "support and help physicians who have identified concerns including working through different possible models including joining teams, transitioning to part-time work, staffing support, and various other options that meet the needs of both Islanders and the physician."

The agency also said it acknowledges doctors have been challenged with heavy workloads and sustainability, and hopes to turn that around by developing more of its medical homes, where doctors are just one part of a team of health-care professionals. 

"We need to do more and do it faster," Dr. Krista Cassell, the president of the Medical Society of P.E.I., said in an emailed statement to CBC News. "Looking for more opportunities to try new things and ensuring physicians are spending more time on patient care and less time on administrative duties are two examples."

'There's an election coming up'

For White and Cornish, more is needed, and fast.

"The system needs to have an overhaul. I don't think the saying 'We're getting to it' is good enough anymore," said White.  

"My message to the government is there's an election coming up, very shortly probably, and we need the premier to get on this, and get on top of this, and fix this," said Cornish.