LACK OF LEADERSHIP AT TOP LEVELS FUELLING DOCTOR SHORTAGES

I am writing this letter as a lifelong Islander. I am a patient, a wife, and a retired pharmacist. I’m seeing the sad state our health care is in and it breaks my heart.

It’s my understanding that Dr. Michael Gardam, interim CEO of Health P.E.I., is attempting to improve our health system. Google his credentials; he has extensive education, a very qualified health leader. I believe his attempts to improve P.E.I.’s health care are possibly being shut down by the Health P.E.I. Board. They are accountable to the Minister of Health and Wellness. My personal experience with the health system includes those with my health and that of family members. My husband Blair has had significant health issues since April 30, 2020.

Much of the health-care system worked perfectly for him with some advocating by myself. Blair was assigned a new family physician, Dr. Christopher Dockx, after Dr. O’Neil retired. He did his residency on P.E.I. and his Summerside practice is his first. He helped to save Blair’s life by quickly accessing a urologist and a CT scan to diagnose Blair’s renal cell carcinoma. With the assistance of physicians at Prince County Hospital, Blair was transferred to Halifax for surgery. The tumour was removed just in time. Dr. Dockx made our incredibly difficult 14 months of ongoing health issues much easier.

Dr. Dockx wanted to practise family medicine part-time and do his specialty of bariatric medicine parttime. These services to obese Islanders would be crucial to reduce their future health risks and overall costs to the government. It’s my understanding that Dr. Dockx didn’t get the support he needed from the “powers that be” on P.E.I. to effectively practise bariatric medicine. He told us that he loves P.E.I. and was planning to purchase a home in Summerside. Then he was offered a full-time position working in bariatric medicine from another province. How could he turn that down? That is his passion.

It breaks my heart that P.E.I. allowed this to happen. They did not support his desire to practise bariatric medicine, a much-needed service for Islanders.

Blair’s 85-year-old mother also had significant health issues in 20192020. Dr. Dockx is her family physician as well. My husband and his mother will be among another 700 Islanders without a family doctor as of September. I’ve reached out to physician friends that I have worked with in the past, asking them to take on Blair and or his mother. They are wonderful doctors and are currently swamped with overloaded family practices and working at Prince County Hospital. I feel terrible to even ask them for a favour. I honestly wish I didn’t have to. I have yet to hear back from the physicians I reached out to. I am asking Premier King to please review the state of the health-care system on P.E.I. immediately. This pandemic has been a strain, but as we are successfully coming out of it, please address our struggling health care system before any more qualified physicians and staff leave P.E.I. There are physicians who wish to retire, but cannot as they don’t want to abandon their patients. I haven’t even addressed the nursing shortage and problems in our long-term care facilities. Our Island is an amazing place to live. I am thankful to live here. I am also quite concerned about our struggling health system.

Traci Creelman

Malpeque