The recently-announced departure of two physicians from the East Wellington Health Clinic has left almost 2,500 patients in Erin and Hillsburgh without a family doctor.
Last month, over 1,200 patients at the East Wellington Health Clinic (EWHC) were informed they would be de-rostered at the clinic in May as their family physician, Dr. Kamakshi Ganesan, is moving to northern Canada and none of her colleagues at the clinic are accepting new patients.
This follows patients of Dr. Meredith Barakat receiving a similar letter in November 2023 warning them her family would be moving out of the county and they would be without a doctor by Feb 9.
A doctor in the community for just over 11 years, Barakat had just under 1,300 patients including Clara Fierro-Janozeski, a diabetic who was devastated by the news.
"I'm feeling a lot of stress and anxiety, to be honest with you," said Fierro-Janozeski, whose children were also patients of Barakat. "I don't know what to do."
As the clinic is currently located about 10 minutes away from her home, Fierro-Janozeski said she's worried that if she goes and looks for a new doctor, she'll lose the convenience of her existing spot, but she also doesn't want to be without a doctor if it takes time to attract a replacement to Erin.
"What matters to me is you want easy access," said Fierro-Janozeski. "You don't want to drive 30 minutes through bad weather when you have to go see the doctor."
Another de-rostered patient, Bernadette Fernandez, had been without a family doctor for several years before she found Barakat.
When Fernandez received her letter, she said she called every doctor on the list provided by the clinic, but no one was accepting patients and she was put on a waiting list every time.
"I'm lucky I've not had any issues, but (I miss the) peace of mind that comes from knowing I do have a local family doctor, should anything happen to me...as opposed to going to the emergency room," said Fernandez.
According to EWHC executive director Kim Bell, the East Wellington Family Health Team (EWFHT) is discussing ways to reorganize their current resources to see how they can provide certain aspects of care to the community at large as county recruitment efforts continue.
"When – not if –" the clinic is successful in recruiting new physicians, Bell said any de-rostered patients without a new doctor will be prioritized should they choose to come back.
"Our wish, first and foremost is to continue to care for people in East Wellington," said Bell. "We don't want to have them access healthcare far from their home community."
The clinic is currently funded for 10 physicians and ordinarily when they're at full complement, house six physicians in Erin and four in Rockwood.
The loss of both doctors means they're down to seven total, with four in Erin and three in Rockwood, although one Erin physician is on extended medical leave.
"I do understand for sure the stress and the emotion involved when you lose your family doctor - that's your partner in maintaining your health," said Bell. "But I think we also really need to take a step back and recognize that our physicians are human beings as well."
In the last year and a half, the clinic has attempted to recruit 32 physicians, but Bell said the reality is the physician's market remains tough, especially for areas like Erin that aren't considered rural enough to offer certain financial incentives one would receive if they moved a little further north.
"A lot of physicians tend to gravitate more toward urban areas where they have specialists and walk-in clinics and hospitals and a large number of local colleagues, in addition to all the conveniences that come from urban centres," said Bell. "So we start at a disadvantage being semi-rural."
In an emailed statement, Mayor Michael Dehn said he has personally reached out to an Oakville-based physician open to moving to Erin and efforts to recruit additional physicians are being coordinated on a county level.
But in Dehn's opinion, physician recruitment efforts need to look at the difference in quality of life versus quantity of income while doctors can make more money doing extras in the city versus at a family practice in the country.
Fernandez said she feels the county's recruitment efforts might neglect Erin.
"I think Erin is not large enough to attract the calibre of doctors (it needs), especially when you look at the overall stats in Ontario," said Fernandez. "We're a small space kind of community, so it feels like a provincial problem and I don't know how it's going to be rectified."
Despite this, Bell said they've been doing "absolutely everything" they can to look for creative ways to use their remaining clinical staff and are currently speaking with four physicians about possibly joining the clinic.
"We've been here before, so we are cautiously optimistic and we will continue to try and use our current resources," said Bell. "We really are trying everything we can to fill that gap and bring care back to the community."
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
