Veteran on long-term disability says he’s been waiting for family doctor since 2011

A Canadian navy veteran says he is fed up with ready for a main care supplier after having been on Prince Edward Island’s wait-list for 11 years.

Matt Dobson moved to P.E.I. in 2011 after being medically launched from the navy when he was identified with despair and post-traumatic stress dysfunction. He had been a member of the armed forces for greater than a decade.

Dobson first signed up for the province’s affected person registry again then. However after not listening to something for eight years, he determined to name the province in 2019 to test when he would lastly have entry to a main caregiver.

“They advised me that my title was not on the listing. That they’d eliminated everybody off of the listing that have been above 4 years. So I needed to put my title again on the listing and begin new once more,” Dobson stated.

“I used to be fairly upset for certain. There was no name. No notification in any respect … They advised me that I’d have gotten an e mail or a letter on the time. I went again and checked out all of the information. I could not discover something.”

After that decision, he stated he contacted about two dozen docs to see in the event that they have been taking sufferers on the time. However he had no luck.

He and his fiancée, Angie Brighty, stated it has been exhausting making an attempt to get the care they require.

“We have gone to emergency rooms collectively and waited for hours and hours and hours to see a health care provider,” Brighty stated. 

“The walk-in clinics — which is OK for what it is meant for … However for somebody with a historical past like Matt has and who wants somebody to take the time to assessment his historical past and discover out what his wants are, the walk-in clinic would not even come near assembly his wants.”

‘This will’t go on yet one more day’

Dobson stated he incurred despair and PTSD after serving within the Persian Gulf in 2005. He stated his life remains to be “a day by day battle.”

“I’ve good days and dangerous days,” he stated. “It is all the time always there: day by day struggles to take care of myself, to do even the simplest duties. When I’ve my dangerous days, it is just about paralyzing.”

Dobson is at present on long-term incapacity and has been unable to work within the final two years due to his situation.

Matt won’t be right here tomorrow if nobody steps as much as assist.— Angie Brighty

He goes to walk-in clinics to get prescriptions and blood work carried out, and bought a psychiatrist by way of Veterans Affairs who screens his medicine and likewise helps him with discuss remedy.

Whereas he stated he at present has extra good days than dangerous ones, there have been durations when he is been suicidal. Brighty stated not having a household physician may be harmful.

“This will’t go on for yet one more day,” she stated. “As a result of Matt won’t be right here tomorrow if nobody steps as much as assist. It is terrifying.”

1000’s nonetheless on wait-list

The affected person registry listing in P.E.I. is at present 23,000 names lengthy and is ready to get even longer. 

Well being P.E.I. has stated that the lately introduced departures of at the least three household docs within the Charlottetown space will have an effect on greater than 5,000 sufferers, which it stated will definitely add extra names to the wait-list.

In an e mail assertion, the company stated they don’t take away sufferers on the registry listing after 4 years and that Islanders are assigned a health-care supplier in chronological order.

It stated 11 years is certainly longer than the same old wait time, although these additionally depend upon the area the individual chosen as their most popular location for his or her main caregiver. Within the Queens area, the typical wait is eight years.

For Dobson, the lengthy wait-list is proof the P.E.I. well being care system is damaged.

“I do not see any finish out of it proper now. Like, it simply retains [growing into] a deeper gap,” he stated.

“It is unhappy as a result of I do know that there is so many individuals like me which can be struggling and wish main care and somebody that they will depend on for to ebook appointments and see. And I simply do not see any approach out of it right here within the close to time period.”