Sandy Marsh has been healing from a knee injury for 8 months, suffering from a torn meniscus and a Baker’s cyst. Although 66-year-old Okotoks woman Alta says her condition is improving, her recovery is complicated without the help of a family doctor.
Marsh has been without a No. 1 health care provider since August, after his family doctor left the local fitness clinic to pursue a new career.
“There are so many people and so few doctors,” Marsh told CTVNews. ca in a telephone interview.
She is one of a handful of seniors across the country who wrote to CTVNews.ca about their struggles with finding a family doctor. Particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, health-care systems throughout the country have been facing staffing shortages caused by an exodus of nurses and other health-care workers who left the profession.
As a result, some Canadians can’t find a family doctor or make timely medical consultations, says Dr. Simpson. Lesley Charles, professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. To achieve new highs in the coming decades, experts warn that Canada’s physical care formula is not in a position to cope with an aging population that may leave seniors behind.
Sandy Marsh has been suffering from a knee injury for six months, suffering from a torn meniscus and a Baker’s cyst. Although 66-year-old Okotoks woman Alta says her condition is improving, her recovery is complicated without the help of a family doctor. (DOCUMENT / CTVNews. ca)
New statistics from Environics Analytics, a marketing and analytics company owned by Bell Canada, show that the country’s senior population is expected to exceed 11 million by 2043. The data, based on special research for CTV News, presents the elderly population as the fastest. Growing age organization in the country. This increase in the number of Canadians over the age of 65 will have far-reaching consequences, adding to the country’s physical care sector,” said Charles.
Against the backdrop of a shortage of fitness care professionals, Charles expects that more seniors will have to turn to a family doctor and access similar services.
“Without seeing an increase in the number of doctors . . . You have to believe that with an increasing number of seniors needing all kinds of consultations for other services, wait times are going to be longer,” he said.
Caring for older people can also be challenging given the number of health disorders they might have compared to younger, less frail patients. Because of this, some doctors don’t need to settle for other older patients, said Charles, who sits on the board of trustees of the Canadian Geriatrics Society.
It’s also conceivable that, without enough physical care staff to keep up with demand, seniors will die faster than if they got the care they needed sooner, Charles said. She uses the example of a user who has difficulty swallowing, but doesn’t have symptoms that can also simply sign something more serious. After months, this user may realize that their condition has worsened and they are unable to eat or drink. After having an endoscopy, you may notice that you have esophageal cancer, which is not unusual in older people. people.
Cancer can spread and require palliative care. Because the immune formula weakens with age, older adults are more likely to die if they can’t temporarily access the care they need, Charles said.
“By not being noticed and not being evaluated, cared for and supported, progression will occur more temporarily and there will be adverse effects, including, more likely, a more rapid death,” he said.
With nearby health clinics unable to accept new patients, Marsh will travel to a walk-in clinic in Calgary to renew her prescriptions and meet her other health-care needs, she said. She is also doing yoga and visiting a chiropractor to care for her knee while hoping it doesn’t get worse.
“If the attention is there when you want it, if it’s not within reach and you have to seek it, other people may not get it,” Marsh said.
For Beaulieu, the question of whether he has a family doctor is confusing to answer. Her primary care physician in Sussex, N. B. , went on maternity leave in January. Since then, several doctors have visited the clinic in an attempt to provide care to patients.
In the end, the 70-year-old said she didn’t know if she would be able to count on the help of her clinic or if a family doctor would be available to help her on any given day.
“I’m more concerned about a fall,” she told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. “Small things make me anxious.”
Jill Beaulieu’s doctor in Sussex, New Brunswick, went on maternity leave in January. Since then, several doctors have visited the clinic to provide care to patients. (DOCUMENT / CTVNews. ca)
Beaulieu’s main considerations are making sure her prescriptions are refilled and avoiding emergency room visits.
In New Brunswick and virtually every province and territory in Canada, citizens report higher average wait times in hospital emergency departments. A study published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) in August shows that patients admitted to emergency departments in Canada are waiting longer for an intensive care bed than between 2021 and 2022.
CTVNews. ca recently collected information from a variety of hospitals across the country to provide a snapshot of wait times in Canada. In Winnipeg, for example, emergency room wait times reached 11 hours, according to estimates compiled at times between Aug. 28 and Aug. 28. and 3 September. Fast forward to mid-December and wait times at the city’s hospitals continue to be up to 11. 5 hours.
Meanwhile, hospitals in cities such as Toronto or Vancouver have waiting times of between one and four hours, according to the latest data from provincial gyms.
Beaulieu, who suffers from chronic back due to a herniated disc, said waiting in line at the emergency room for hours would be a struggle.
“To go to the emergency room, for me you also say ‘go to the moon,'” he said.
Beaulieu, who hopes to face increased fitness as he gets older, says he worries about what his life as a senior will look like in the future.
“My condition is going to get worse than it gets better,” he said.
Canada’s fitness worker shortage is also affecting older adults in need of surgery. Diane Middleton said she waited more than two years for a procedure to treat an intestinal prolapse that pinched a nerve in her body. This left the 81-year-old in constant pain and making it difficult for him to walk, he said.
After speaking with physical care staff at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ont. , Middleton learned that staff members were reviewing a mountain of paperwork and struggling to treat each and every patient on the waiting list. in an opportune moment.
After being notified of a cancellation, Middleton was able to get an urgent referral from her family doctor and was given an appointment by the end of October.
“If I hadn’t called and fought for it, I’d still be waiting,” he told CTVNews. ca in a phone interview.
Diane Middleton waited more than two years before undergoing surgery to treat an intestinal prolapse that pinched a nerve. In this photo, Middleton, from right to left, appears with her children. (DOCUMENT / CTVNews. ca)
Other Canadians have left the country for surgery. That includes Keith Braun, 72, of Steinbach, Man. , who traveled to Puebla, Mexico, to undergo shoulder replacement surgery in mid-June.
After injuring his shoulder in 2020, Braun completely tore his rotator cuff after slipping on the ice in April 2023, he said. This made it difficult for him to move his right arm and left him in constant pain.
Braun was told the estimated wait time in Manitoba for the surgery he needed was approximately 18 months.
“Our physical care system . . . It’s completely dysfunctional (and) it doesn’t work,” he told CTVNews. ca in a phone interview.
Keith Braun of Steinbach, Manitoba, traveled to Puebla, Mexico, for a shoulder in mid-June. (DOCUMENT/CTVNews. ca)
After contacting a medical tourism company that specializes in helping travelers plan medical treatments abroad, she contacted a surgeon in Mexico and had the procedure performed within two weeks.
Braun paid for his surgery out of pocket and said the total charge (adding the remaining procedure, flights and hotel) is $35,000. While considering paying for the procedure in Manitoba, he said the surgery would not be performed on personal fitness services.
“There comes a point where the price of time and the price of cash are abruptly replaced,” he said. “At my age, a year to a year and a part may be only 10% of what I have left to live. »
While burnout has been cited as one of the main reasons many fitness professionals have left their jobs, several are leaving the workforce due to old age, said Arthur Sweetman, a professor at McMaster University who specializes in fitness and the economics of hard work. .
Data from the CIHI shows approximately nine per cent of physicians were 65 years of age and older in 2000, while seven per cent were between the ages of 60 and 64. By 2022, 15 per cent of physicians in Canada were aged 65 and older, and nearly 10 per cent were 60 to 64 years of age.
“We don’t have enough bodies,” he told CTVNews. ca in a phone interview.