The physician-starved community of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia,
breathed a collective sigh of relief when it learned three
new family doctors had been recruited to work at the Ocean
View Family Practice. Relief turned to disbelief when
the health authority announced its unconventional patient
application method: a lottery. 'Orphan' patients were
asked to go to fill out a form and throw their name in
a hat. On March 15 the 1,500 'winners' will get something
all Canadians are supposed to have: a doctor to call their
own.
The story has caused a minor furore
in the medical establishment and in underserved communities
nationwide. "This is a sad state of affairs," the president
of Doctors Nova Scotia, Dr Romesh Shukla, said. "It's
a symptom of the system and the solution is we need
more family doctors and the right distribution of them."
"It's not a situation anyone should be praising," added
an editorialist in the local Yarmouth Vanguard,
"not even the 1,500 lucky people whose names will be
drawn in the doctor lottery." "Let's hope we never have
to resort to holding 'doctor lottos' here," opined a
peer writing from the other side of the country in the
Chilliwack Times. "This is what we get for not
pursuing real choice and reform in healthcare: rationing
schemes that make us equal only in our sufferings,"
writes 'Loyalist' on the conservative blog Dissonance
and Disrespect.
One can only wonder what the three
new physicians (who were perhaps enticed by the health
authority's slogan "Don't just head south for the winter
— head south forever!") will make of all this.
Ocean View's Dr Shelagh Leahey will mentor the three
— Dr Suzy Guirguis, Dr Qasim Sayed and Dr Neeru
Anand — who are all foreign-trained — to Canadian
standards as part of the Clinician Assessment for Practice
Program (CAPP). "It's the only fair method we've been
able to find that gives every single person in the region
a fair chance at getting a doctor," said Dr Leahey to
the Canadian Press.
About 8,000 people out of 62,000
living in the south western Nova Scotia region —
which comprises the communities of Yarmouth, Shelburne
and Digby — are without a physician. In anticipation
of a big rush of applicants, the health authority has
had 3,000 forms printed and distributed in hospitals
and pharmacies; web-savvy 'orphans' can download the
applications from their website. Lucky contestants will
be informed by April 7 if they've been chosen.
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