With the recent departure of two of Powell River’s doctors, more pressure is being put on an already taxed medical community which is trying to meet the demand with fewer family physicians.
Dr. Vidushi Mittra Melrose and Dr. Deborah Hocking both decided to permanently close their practices in Powell River this fall which has added to the already large population of orphaned patients on the Upper Sunshine Coast.
Hocking sent her patients at Family Tree Health a letter on November 21, 2012 in which she apologized for leaving and explained that she could not find a replacement doctor to take over her practice.
She has advised her patients in the letter that Drs. David May, Chris Morwood and Leta Burechailo, the other doctors who have practices in Family Tree Health, will be able to temporarily help out to fill prescriptions. After December 21 patients will have to go to Powell River General Hospital emergency room for both “emergent and non-emergent” medical attention.
Hocking’s patients join a rising number of people without a family doctor and must rely on visiting the emergency room for medical care.
“Dr. May and I have tried to support Dr. Hocking and her patients as best as we’re able in the last few months,” said Morwood, co-chair of Powell River Division of Family Practice, a non-profit medical society. “Unfortunately, we’re unable to sustain this into the new year. Both of us are involved in ongoing recruitment efforts as part of our division of family practice.”
Powell River has 28 general practitioners practicing medicine though, as Dr. Richard Lupton, co-senior medical director for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) coastal community care, noted not all of those doctors have full-time office hours.
Doctor burnout has been identified as a key factor in retaining doctors in rural communities.
Doctors in Powell River are independent contractors and work with VCH. However, they are required to cover the emergency room at the hospital and must take care of their patients when they are admitted there.
Lupton said in an interview with the Peak, “The worry is that if the numbers fall significantly what happens is the load gets left on the doctors who are left behind and they start to quit and the whole thing starts to unravel. It is quite a concern.”
Anna Marie D’Angelo, VCH’s senior public affairs officer, said the emergency room at the hospital “is not seeing an increase” in the numbers of patients who have to visit it for medical care. She said that three or four patients per day, who don’t have family doctors, visit the emergency room.
