Registry not only route to doctor: Health PEI

Health PEI is recommending Islanders not rely exclusively on the provincial patient registry to find a family doctor, advice that is not sitting well with some doctors.

"It seems like it's totally passing off the ball to someone else when it's not, unfortunately, the physicians' problem. We're full of patients," said Dr. Billy Scantlebury.

"It's a government problem of needing more doctors."

The registry, which was started in 2000, was designed to match people with family doctors as spots opened. A decade ago, the registry had about 900 patients on it. Now, there are close to 5,000.

"When we are able to take on patients, we contact the Department of Health and then they can direct people who are on the registry to our practices," said Scantlebury.

While Health PEI places about 1,000 patients a year through the registry, it is also recommending Islanders do whatever they can to find a family doctor on their own.

"The list grows; it's like a moving target," Johanne Irwin, manager of physician services for Health PEI, told CBC News Tuesday.

"Physicians leave and when they leave then we have another 1,000 or more patients on the registry."

Charlene Kiburis, a patient waiting at a walk-in clinic in Charlottetown, said she had just been informed by Health PEI that they had found her a family doctor after being on the patient registry for three years.

"Certainly the registry is not the only way that patients can find physicians," said Irwin.

"In the family, if a family member has a physician then that physician can accept the other family member.

Irwin said Islanders can also find doctors by talking to them at walk-in clinics, because some doctors may choose to take on patients who speak to them directly.

The main purpose of the registry, she said, is to help people new to the Island who don't have other ways of finding a doctor.