Corner Brook doctor quits practice, citing burnout — and failed government retention efforts
Family physician Melissa O'Brien says she can't keep up with the workload and has no choice but to close
A family doctor in Corner Brook is quitting and closing her practice next month, saying she's overworked and overwhelmed amid an ongoing shortage of family physicians in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Melissa O'Brien has been a doctor in her hometown since 2011, and believes the provincial government should be doing more to support health-care professionals like her right now.
"It's heartbreaking. It's the hardest decision I have ever had to make in medicine," O'Brien says, holding back tears as she stands in one of her clinic rooms at Medical on Second in the Veitch Wellness Centre.
O'Brien and several other doctors opened the fee-for-service practice several years ago. Although closing her practice is not something she wants to do, she feels she has no other choice.
"It's guilt-inducing. You hear from these seniors, these 95 year-olds that you consider your Pop, telling you he has always had a family doctor. And he is not going to have a doctor for the first time in 60 years and it breaks your heart.
"And you think about the young children who are going to have to sit in the emergency room and wait hours to be seen for something you would just fit them in your clinic for," she said.
Can't compete
O'Brien has been actively seeking a replacement, someone to take over her practice and her patients. She hasn't had any luck finding someone.
She says she can't compete with N.L. Health Services incentives and bonuses that the government is dishing out right now.
She thinks incentivizing doctors to move to certain communities is the wrong approach, and there should be more of a focus on retention, not just recruitment.
"The community family clinics that are working so hard to maintain the primary care for their patients are being ignored," she said.
The Department of Health disagrees with O'Brien, saying in a statement to CBC it is committed to supporting family medicine physicians and addressing administrative burdens like the ones she's facing.
O'Brien says she works at her family medicine clinic all day and then tackles paperwork at home, late into the night. She says the amount of administrative work in family medicine right now is astronomical.
"I have two children. I get the kids to bed and I am back doing work on my computer again until midnight or after. And it is neverending. I don't think that is thought about often," she said.
O'Brien tried a practice share approach, sharing the patient's needs with another family doctor, but it didn't last long.
"It came to a halt, unfortunately. There were incentives offered for more competitive positions elsewhere within ... N.L. Health Services, and the physician I was going to practice with opted for a more competitive option," said O'Brien.
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The Department of Health suggested the practice share approach that O'Brien tried, without success.
In Corner Brook, a new family doctor who wants to join a fee-for-service practice or take over O'Brien's patients can avail of a $150,000 incentive under the Family Practice Start Up Program, plus a two-year income guarantee.
O'Brien will close up her practice Dec. 17. She will continue working part time at the cancer clinic and work at the hospital, depending on the need.
"I feel like I didn't have much choice in terms of where to move forward with family medicine," she said. "It's difficult."
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