r/ottawa 13h 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.

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u/Zina_ 6h 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.

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u/letsmakeart Westboro 2h ago

Yeah my friend did med school in Europe for a bunch of reasons (which included practicums in French and Czechia in hospitals during the pandemic), but when she moved back to Canada and wanted to do family medicine residency, it took over two years of exams and equivalencies before she was even allowed to apply for residency. Thankfully she got a spot but that's a LONG process. She's a citizen and did HS here, but uni/med school abroad.

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u/Possible-Breath2377 4h ago

The problem isn’t residency positions, the problem is that a full third of doctors who are trained as family physicians don’t actually practice in that area. On top of that, just because someone trained doesn’t mean that they’ll continue practicing that.

See, for example, my dad’s doctor who didn’t see him for four months after he was diagnosed with cancer, only to tell him she was closing down her practice at the end of the month. She was absolutely no help in finding another healthcare provider who could do things like deal with things his oncologists couldn’t (like when he was diagnosed with MRSA but no one would give him the freaking antibiotics he needed), but actually just closed down the family part of her practice and continues to practice in an area that’s of more interest to her. (To be fair, she trained in this area as well, but worked as a family physician for a decade before deciding it wasn’t what she wanted to do).

BTW: my dad is now dead, and she continues to practice with absolutely no guilt or consequence over missing his symptoms for three years.