Sask. Health Authority removes online list of family doctors accepting new patients

Kathy Fitzpatrick is looking for a new family doctor in Saskatchewan. It's the third time she's had to find a new physician after hers left the province or the profession.

She said the search is much harder than it used to be, because as of this fall the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has stopped providing a list of family doctors taking on new patients.

Fitzpatrick is on medication for Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. During a recent call for a prescription renewal, she learned her doctor is leaving the province in late December.

"I would have expected to have been notified," Fitzpatrick said.

She said she was told there was a sign up in the clinic with the information.

"I said, 'well I haven't been in the clinic to see that sign.'"

Other doctors at the clinic will look after her until the clinic can find a new doctor, but she wants a permanent solution.

SHA changes its website

The SHA's list of doctors taking new patients, which was available online, has been replaced with a list of all the clinics in the province. It's now on the patient to phone around to find out where there are spots available.

SHA says the new list is a more accurate representation of all health-care services available to patients, including those offering urgent and after hours care.

"The page previously linked to the former regional health authority website where a list of doctors accepting new patients was maintained by each former region," James Winkel, an SHA communications lead, wrote in a statement to CBC.

"Unfortunately, these lists were often inaccurate and out of date, as there was no standardized process in place to routinely validate lists and it was incumbent on physicians to notify SHA if they were or were no longer accepting new patients."

Fitzpatrick said she spent days calling clinics.

"I was 26th on the call queue, so I gave up and just called other clinics," Fitzpatrick said. "I called back another day and was able to get through, but I did not have to go these lengths in the past to find a doctor."

Differing figures on doctor availability in Saskatchewan

The Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) says Saskatchewan lost 159 family doctors from 2020 to 2021.

CIHI's most recent Health Workforce in Canada data says that in 2021 there were 1,248 family medicine practitioners in the province. That is 105.8 doctors per 100,000 people, the lowest rate among Canadian provinces.

However, Saskatchewan Ministry of Health spokesperson Dale Hunter wrote in a statement to the CBC that the ministry recorded a 7.2 per cent increase in the number of general practitioners and a 1.5 per cent increase in specialists for approximately the same period.

Hunter said the CIHI data came from mailed survey responses, while the ministry's numbers came directly from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan registry and payment data. He also said the ministry and the CIHI use different definitions of active physicians.

It's difficult to track when physicians are leaving family medicine, retiring or slowing down their practices, said Dr. Andries Muller, the president of the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians.

"When I look at the number of family physicians in the province, I look at how many have a licence to practise family medicine," Dr. Muller said.

"I go to the College of Physicians and Surgeons and I get a number which is really much higher than what the reality is."

Muller noted that 84 family doctors left the province from 2019 to 2021, while only 19 new ones came in.

He said that when the online list was available earlier in the fall, it had no clinics accepting new patients in larger cities such as Regina and Saskatoon.

"Every patient deserves to have a primary physician who is looking after their care," Muller, who is a family doctor, said.

"We just don't have enough doctors to do that."

Solutions to the family doctor shortages

Muller said the current primary care system isn't sustainable.

He said team-based care is the solution, because some of the tasks he does could be done by other medical professionals, freeing up more of his time.

"There are nurses, pharmacists, social workers and physios that can help me deliver that care," Muller said.

Fitzpatrick does have a meet and greet next week with a doctor who just began taking new patients, but she is worried about other people in Saskatchewan looking for primary care.

"I don't see why a list couldn't be regularly updated," Fitzpatrick said.

"[SHA] could also consider a registry of patients looking for a doctor and try to help those people find doctors accepting new patients."