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HALIFAX – A viral video made by a frustrated young mother in Nova Scotia, saying she waited two years for her cancer diagnosis, can not be ignored, said the president of the Canadian Medical Association.
Dr. Gigi Osler described the situation described by Inez Rudderham, 33, as "heartbreaking".
"We need to pay attention because I think it's a sign of the challenges our health system is facing right now," Osler said in an interview Friday.
In a moving video on Facebook that has been viewed more than 2.6 million times, Rudderham explains that she has not been diagnosed with stage 3 bad cancer for two years because of her lack of bad. Access to a family doctor.
She says she had to seek care in the emergency department and that she was diagnosed only after three emergency room visits. She also says that she will not be able to get the mental health services she needs to cope with the stress caused by her ordeal until July.
Rudderham described his case as "the face of the health care crisis in Nova Scotia" and asked to meet with Prime Minister Stephen McNeil.
Osler said the lack of access to primary health care is not unique to Nova Scotia – New Brunswick and British Columbia, for example, have similar problems.
She said that health problems in Canada are "complex and intricate" and will not be solved by simply injecting money into the system.
The ratio of 257 physicians per 100,000 population in Nova Scotia is the highest in the country. And yet, there were 51,119 people on a waiting list for a family doctor in the province on March 1st.
Osler said that it was perhaps time for Ottawa to take the lead on human resource issues, adding that it was necessary to conduct a thorough review of the health care system of an organization. ocean to the other.
"We need bold solutions and bold leadership," said Osler, whose group represents Canada's physicians.
And while the CMA did not comment on whether the Canada Health Act should be amended, Osler said it was time for Canadians to hold a "frank and open debate" about issues surrounding the law.
For example, she emphasized Rudderham's "excessive" expectation for mental health services.
"Apart from psychiatric care, the Public Health Act does not provide for mental health coverage, but should it? Is it time to include mental health services … is it time to consider home care in law?
John Malcom, former executive director of the Cape Breton Health Authority, said he was convinced that there are direct links between the shortage of primary care physicians and missed diagnoses such as those occurring in the case of Rudderham.
"The family doctor knows you when you are in good health and when you are not," he said in an interview.
"When you go to the hospital, whether it's in an emergency room, in a consultation room or under the care of a specialist, they see you as a sick person. not what you look like when you're healthy. "
This knowledge of a person's medical history and their wider lives often provides a "spark" that helps a doctor to suspect a variety of illnesses in a young person, said the health administrator. veteran.
The solution to family physician shortages is part of a larger national problem that will take years to recover, Malcom said.
He says it threatens the health of patients across Canada.
Malcom said the provincial governments should increase the number of medical students and ensure that all two-year specialist training positions – called residences – are filled across the country.
According to 2017 figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Nova Scotia has 1,234 family physicians and 1,222 specialists, for a total of 2,456 physicians, serving a population from about 965,382.
Geoff Ballinger, Physician Information Officer at CIHI, said it was impossible to say for the moment what the preferred ratios would be because health care is provided differently in each province.
"There is no benchmark ratio," Ballinger said. "Even if it existed, this reference ratio would probably evolve over time, just like populations, in terms of aging, etc."
Nova Scotia's Minister of Health Randy Delorey said Friday that the provincial government has taken public concerns into account and is taking steps to recruit and retain physicians, including an international recruitment stream.
He also pointed to an increase in the number of residency seats of 10 for family physicians and 15 for training specialists in the province.
"This responds to the recognition that when a physician trains and completes his residency training, he is more likely to stay to settle," Delorey said.
He said he believes the province's efforts "are starting to bear fruit."
"Are we all the way? No. Will we continue our efforts? Yes."
In her video, Rudderham says that she received 30 sets of radiation on her pelvis, which leaves her "sterile and sterile".
Rudderham says that she was swept away when she took her health problems to the emergency rooms.
"All is well, no?" Because they caught it. "They caught it when it was the third step," says Rudderham, in tears.
"To the premier of Nova Scotia, I challenge you to go to a meeting … and tell me that there is no health care crisis."
Dr. Gary Ernest, president elect of Doctors Nova Scotia, says the video shows that the shortage of family doctors in the province is "a health crisis."
John Gillis, spokesman for the Nova Scotia Health Authority, said the officials had seen the video and had been "affected", and were turning to Rudderham for her to respond to her concerns.
"His story reminds all of us why we work in the health sector, we want to help Nova Scotians feel good and look after them when they are sick," he said in a statement. communicated.
– With records of Michael Tutton
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