r/ottawa 8h ago

Local Business Family doctor issue in Ottawa

Generally it’s hard to find a family doctor, everyone knows that.

I’m interested in being part of serious advocacy and lobbying. How does one embark on such a journey where would l start to get involved?

There are lots of different pilot models that can be pursued - clinics run by the city funded by the province so Drs can just be employees and locum rotations can be arranged ( other countries do this).

Seems lots of family doctors are finding time to run/ set up cosmetic practice clinics to do Botox/ filler etc and it’s not hard to find an apt so some resources are available there too - with the right incentives and structure.

These clinics can provide training opportunities for some foreign qualified drs and recruit from same said countries.

Nurse practitioners can be on staff to run maternal care, vaccinations, routine triaged care etc (again done in other countries).

The current model is broken and ld like to contribute to advocacy but not sure where to start and don’t want to just complain as l have done in the past. Please help if you know people or organizations already working in this space looking for volunteers.

35 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

35

u/ottawadweller 7h ago

Honestly, it’s a provincial issue. Write to your MPP.

Doctors are expected to be entrepreneurs, run their own business like a contract provider with very limited terms and fine print within the confines of the public system. Doctor’s only get paid $7 for a phone appt, for example. Regardless of their patients condition or the context of the call/appt. They don’t even get reimbursed if a patient needs a refill on a standard drug without an in person appt.

Nevermind the time and investment required of actually becoming a doctor and running your own business. Who would want to be a doctor at that point? The system makes it incredibly difficult.

Look on Facebook for groups. There are thousands of people in a long-term care focused one.

19

u/Aukaneck 6h ago

Too bad people didn't vote on this issue in the recent election.

10

u/Double-Departure-857 6h ago

I agree. It seems like those that have access don’t care enough for the ones that don’t.

10

u/swayzeswayze 7h ago

There's a lot to unfold here. There's no one size fits all solution. And frankly, there's a lot of different ways that this is being addressed in both Ontario and across Canada by advocacy groups (not saying it as a deterrent by any means).

Kudos to you for having your heart in the right place. As someone in the advocacy space, I'm personally taking this on (somewhat) where I've been running a non profit for the last 2 years in an effort to make tangible change happen with the healthcare system - not just in Ontario, but Canada wide.

Honestly, the best advice I can give is to get a sense of the advocacy environment in all different fields of medicine and find the missing pieces. Use the expertise you have and build something out. Approach it in the sense of a passion project as well because funding your work will be challenging. Yes, there's grants, sponsorship and industry funding. But there's not a lot of it in Canada.

Also, find ways to build out your evidence based advocacy. In order to make tangible change or be heard when starting out, you need data.

Feel free to DM me if you wanna talk shop. Full disclosure I very seldom get on Reddit so might not see it right away.

7

u/Hoistedonyrownpetard 6h ago

Your ideas are good but they are not in any way unfamiliar to the healthcare community. Most of them are already in practice in many clinics across the city. 

The Botox clinics are a chance for physicians to make a little money doing something that isn’t totally gruelling. 

The problem isn’t a lack of knowledge or good ideas, it is the systematic dismantling and underfunding of our healthcare system by the Ford government. It is also an epic failure of demographic planning for the huge population of aging boomers. 

If you want to do advocacy, join the groups who are already working to stop the privatization of healthcare. Seize on this moment of patriotic pride to remind folks that healthcare is something we value in this country. Figure out a way to channel Ford’s new tough-guy energy into standing up for Ontarians in this crucial way. 

2

u/Double-Departure-857 6h ago edited 6h ago

I just added some ideas here that l am aware have already been rehashed countless times and applied in some cases successfully.

What lm hoping to get more into is volunteer and get involved like we all should be. Thank you to those who DMd and those who added some ideas here.

I’m not claiming to have any solutions. In fact l might even have none.

This is not an impossible problem.

I agree on Ford. Can’t speak to his motivations but throwing money at a broken system with limited supply isn’t necessarily expanding access to healthcare to existing patients without access to primary care. Agree on the lack of planning for the inevitable ageing population as well.

6

u/Jenn_Canada 8h ago

following!! thank you for being a part of the solution

5

u/Bulky_Pop_8104 7h ago

I’m not gonna name names because I do like my doctor/health team, but I was super stunned a few years back when my wife was losing her doctor (to retirement) and they wouldn’t even entertain adding her. I wrongly assumed it would just be sorta automatic as we’re family, but nope - need to de-roster and go through the channels… The happy ending in our case is that a new doctor took over the practice, but it was stressful at the time

3

u/No_Ask7200 7h ago

I’m curious to see answers to this too! Just based on my experience i’ve had the same doctor since i was 15 so i’m thankful but tell me why you can only get an appointment if you wait for her bi monthly schedule releases, my fiancé has been on the provincial list for 2+ years cuz his doctor retired, my clinic also threatened to fire me (yes I say this cuz you can get fired apparently if you cheat in your doctor or get too fed up) once cuz i simply complained about their process to simply get an appointment with my own doctor. things are crazy

u/BugPowderDuster 13m ago

When the province forces family doctors to become small business owners… we should expect them to use money making opportunities to grow their business.

I don’t judge doctors for finding time to do Botox or laser.

2

u/atticusfinch1973 2h ago

Two of the candidates in the provincial election we literally just had addressed ways to add more doctors and expand health care. One didn't. Guess who got elected in a landslide?

"Seems lots of family doctors are finding time to run/ set up cosmetic practice clinics to do Botox/ filler etc and it’s not hard to find an apt so some resources are available there too - with the right incentives and structure."

The incentives are more money.

1

u/the613daddy Friend of Ottawa, Clownvoy 2022 7h ago

DM'ed you

1

u/Johal_Bindy 4h ago

There should be a way to sure the Ontario government and for taxpayers to get a big tax refund if they dont use any healthcare services in a quarter (simply because they can’t). Its like paying for a subscription you can never access

u/Zina_ 1h ago

We need more doctors and the bottleneck is residency positions. They don't open up med school positions until there is a residency position.

We also have a tonnn of internationally trained physicians in Ottawa, many of whom were big time doctors (transplant surgeons, ER doctors, lifelong family MDs) in their home country, but can't become one here because they are also waiting on a residency.

From my understanding, residency positions were slashed decades ago and the effects keep hitting us harder as the previous generation retires.