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<\/a><\/p>\nDr. Darcie McGonigle, a Saskatchewan family physician and president of Saskatchewan\u2019s College of Family Physicians, at the Walk with your Doc event in 2025. (Darcie McGonigle\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
She said the organization was hearing stories of people keeping lists of doctors\u2019 offices to call regularly, taking time out of their day in the hope that an opening would arise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no place where people can go to find out this information centrally,\u201d said McGoningle. \u201cLikewise, family doctors\u2019 offices were complaining that they\u2019re fielding, you know, tens, hundreds of these calls a week (from) desperate folks looking for a primary-care provider.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGonigle said the long, often fruitless searches take an emotional toll on residents, and also on employees at doctors\u2019 offices who have to repeatedly turn potential patients down due to capacity restraints.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really felt that it was important for people\u2019s voices to be heard, and wanted the government to kind of take some action on developing a registry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Such a registry, McGonigle explained, would have two sides \u2013 a patient registry, allowing people in need of a primary-care provider to identify themselves and a practitioner registry showing the capacity of family physicians, nurse practitioners and primary-care teams to take on new patients.<\/p>\n
Several provinces already have similar registries in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is that then these can be matched, and we can kind of get people on the patient side connected with appropriate primary-care providers in a timely fashion when possible,\u201d McGonigle said.<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health said the provincial government has committed to every resident in the province having access to a primary-care provider by the end of 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry of Health is aiming to achieve this goal through partnership and collaboration with our health-care providers and stakeholders,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The ministry also confirmed that a provincial advisory committee has been established, including representation from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the Saskatchewan Medical Association, the Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners, the Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency, the Health Quality Council, 3SHealth, the College of Medicine, the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians, eHealth, Patient & Family Partners and the ministry itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis committee provides advice, recommendations and coordination on improving primary care and ensuring residents have access to the right primary care provider at the right time to address their health needs,\u201d the ministry stated.<\/p>\n
It also acknowledged the college\u2019s petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ministry and our health sector partners are discussing this idea as part of our on-going work to improve and expand primary care access across the province,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
McGonigle said she\u2019s \u201ccertainly hopeful\u201d now that the advisory group has formed. She said many members of the group are enthusiastic and feel that the registry is a \u201cnecessary next step, especially to achieve the province\u2019s goal of having everybody in the province connected with primary care by 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of those tools that will actually be able to make the government accountable for that and say \u2018Yes, yes, we do have this,\u2019\u201d McGonigle said.<\/p>\n
She said that even when someone has been accepted as a patient by a family doctor, they might face delays in scheduling appointments due to the heavy workloads many family physicians are managing.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because people are attached to a primary-care provider doesn\u2019t always mean that that access is there,\u201d McGonigle said, adding that she is also advocating for increased services and increasing team-based care, in an effort to improve overall access to primary care.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the province announced it would be hiring more nurse practitioners, expanding its rural physician incentive program and expanding virtual access to physicians<\/a>.<\/p>\n McGonigle said the registry being proposed would compliment the work the province is doing on these fronts by helping to identify the patients who do not have a primary-care provider. While work is being done to increase the number of family doctors in the province, she said access to virtual care can be \u201cone piece of the puzzle\u201d to help keep patients out of emergency rooms for primary-care needs.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pleased that they are moving forward on the registry,\u201d McGonigle said. \u201cWe\u2019re not at the point where any decisions have been made about the registry. It\u2019s still a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n Saskatchewan\u2019s official Opposition also weighed in on the issue.<\/p>\n Sask. NDP leader Carla Beck was quoted in an April 1 statement, comparing finding a family doctor to \u201cscoring concert tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are spending hours calling clinic after clinic, scanning social media, even building spreadsheets to track leads,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n In January, a 23-year-old man in Regina took matters into his own hands and created a website aiming to connect people with doctors accepting new patients in Saskatchewan\u2019s capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n