When a family doctor retires, another one will usually take its place.
For the Grandview Medical Centre Family Health Team in Cambridge, that won’t be the case for one patient list.
Temporary replacements have come and gone to cover for a retired doctor over the last eight months, but with none willing to stay permanently, that patient list will be left doctorless come the end of September.
Susan Shackleton has been a patient of the doctor retiring for 25 years.
“All of the sudden they’re telling me as of September 28, ‘Sorry, you've got to find a new doctor and you’re no longer our patient here,’” she said.
Grandview notes that patients belong to physicians, not clinics, which can add to the confusion and difficult for patients who are trying to find where they stand.
"This was not an ideal situation, but with the physician retiring and with no other locum help on the horizon we had to make the difficult decision to release the practice,” said Grandview’s executive director.
Shackleton has since placed her name on various waitlists, hopeful for a female doctor to replace the one she’s been with for over two decades.
