Some Westman patients waiting years to find a family doctor

Even though it’s supposed to take an average of 30 days to be matched with a physician through the province’s Family Doctor Finder program, some Westman residents say they’ve been waiting for years.

Samantha Linton, a mother of four, said she added her family to the waitlist when they moved from B.C. to Brandon in the fall of 2022 and they still haven’t had any luck.

It’s a “fend for yourself” situation, she said.

“If your body feels off, go to a walk-in clinic, and a lot of the times you walk into a walk-in clinic and … they’re so quick to push you out the door.”

Linton takes medication to manage her diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism, which means her thyroid gland doesn’t make enough thyroid hormones to meet her body’s needs.

A doctor recommended that she gets blood tests done every three months to check on her thyroid, she said.

“You do need to make sure that you stay on top of it,” Linton said. “That’s pretty hard when you don’t have a family doctor that you can just call and say, ‘Hey, I need a blood work requisition.’”

During an unrelated news conference on Friday, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the province met its target several months ago to connect 80 per cent of people registered through Family Doctor Finder with a local physician in under 30 days.

“If you use familydoctorfinder.ca, you can get connected to a family physician or nurse practitioner primary care provider in under 30 days, and we’re seeing great success with that,” Asagwara said.

The Brandon Sun reached out to the minister on Monday, but didn’t get a response before press time.

Before Linton moved to Brandon, she also had two pap smears done to remove abnormal or precancerous cells from her cervix through a loop electrosurgical excision procedure.

She’s supposed to follow up with a doctor about this annually, but getting a timely pap smear in Brandon with a primary care provider you feel comfortable with is difficult, she said.

Linton’s four children, who are all under the age of 13, are also in need of a family physician and were included in the form she filled out through Family Doctor Finder.

“Not being able to see a family doctor regularly means that my kids don’t get that once-a-year full physical, which is very important for kids that are growing, and very important for, you know, adults too,” she said.

Her two oldest children are neurodivergent. She said it would have been easier for them to get a diagnosis if they had a family doctor.

Linton said it’s upsetting when she hears about a local doctor who’s accepting new patients but is immediately booked up by the time she calls to inquire.

“There’s really nothing that we can do at this point. You just fill out the form again and stay on the list and just hope that a family doctor space will become available,” she said.

She said more doctors need to be hired in the Westman area and that it would be convenient if people didn’t have to travel to neighbouring communities to see a doctor.

“There’s a lot of people in Brandon that are having to go to all of these smaller towns, and now those smaller towns are probably going to, you know, suffer eventually too,” she said.

Prairie Mountain Health’s latest annual report said it had a total of 244 physicians and 30 nurse practitioners as of September 2024.

Data from the report show there were 2,936 people in Prairie Mountain Health who were waiting to be connected with a doctor through Family Doctor Finder in April last year — a 45 per cent decrease from 5,358 people waiting in April 2024.

Brandon resident Ayomikun Olasunkanmi has been searching for a female doctor since the fall because her previous male doctor made her feel uncomfortable, rushed her through appointments and didn’t take her health concerns seriously, she said.

Olasunkanmi became frustrated when her past doctor wouldn’t give her a referral to a dermatologist after a treatment he prescribed wasn’t working and didn’t ask followup questions when she brought up concerns about feeling constantly sick with a cold and having allergies.

“I think ever since those experiences, I’ve just kind of been scared,” she said, adding that she tried voicing her health concerns to a walk-in doctor, but left feeling like the issues still weren’t resolved.

Olasunkanmi has been keeping a close watch on whether The Wellness Clinic, which focuses on women’s health, is accepting any new patients. She also registered through Family Doctor Finder about three weeks ago.

“They recently got back to me, but they said that there’s no physicians accepting new patients in Brandon.”

Family Doctor Finder staff asked if she was interested in looking for a doctor outside the city, but that won’t work for her, she said.

Olasunkanmi said she will remain on the waitlist and seek health-care services through a walk-in clinic until she is matched with a female doctor.

Doctors Manitoba said in a statement “there’s no question” that Brandon needs a more diverse group of family doctors.

“Comfort, trust and communication can be improved when the diversity of physicians reflects that of the community,” Doctors Manitoba said.

» tadamski@brandonsun.com