Thunder Bay woman says province denied her a doctor because she paid for NP care

A Thunder Bay, Ont., woman in search of a family doctor says the provincial service that helps people find primary health care providers refused to help her — because she had signed on with a fee-for-service nurse practitioner clinic that charges her up to $90 per visit.

But Victoria London said she only signed on with the clinic because she couldn't find a family doctor.

London moved to Thunder Bay from Edmonton in February 2023 and called every clinic in town searching for a primary healthcare provider, she said.

When she failed to find a single one that was taking new patients, she added her name to wait lists and signed up for Health Care Connect (HCC). The service is designed to help people connect with a doctor or nurse practitioner that is accepting new patients in their community.

In the meantime, she began using a private nurse practitioner clinic in the city's north core whose fees range from $40 to $180 per service, according to its website.

She said she did so "out of desperation."

This past winter, London said Health Care Connect contacted her to let her know it had found her a primary care provider. However, the employee she spoke with said she was ineligible for its service because she had joined the fee-for-service clinic.

CBC has not been able to independently verify the contents of London's phone call. 

"I said to her on the phone, 'That's not a public health-care situation. That's private because I have to pay for it, and I'm not willing to pay for it. Like, I can't afford that,'" London said of her conversation with the representative from Health Care Connect.

"And she just said, 'Well some people don't have any health care at all, so we have to prioritize them."

She said the representative told her she would be rejected if she tried to sign up for the service again. 

Minister of Health spokesperson responds

Health Care Connect does not permit people to register for its service if they are "already registered with a health care provider," according to its website.

It does not specify whether that includes nurse practitioner clinics that charge patients for services. 

A spokesperson for the minister of health told CBC in an email that "HCC would not remove an individual for paying for non-OHIP-covered services."

She clarified that non-OHIP-covered services include services provided by a nurse practitioner outside of a publicly-funded interprofessional primary care team. 

"If an individual told HCC staff they 'are already connected to a provider' without providing details regarding if it was private pay or not, HCC would remove them from their list and consider this individual as connected to a primary care provider, no longer needing HCC services," the email read.

But London is adamant that she told the Health Care Connect representative that she was paying for care.

"I was pretty upset on the call," she said.  "I did tell the person on the phone several times, 'I'm paying out of pocket for this.' she said. "I definitely was very clear."

Going without care

CBC News asked the representative of the minister of health what, if any, recourse London has if she believes she was wrongly denied the service, but has not received a response.

Thunder Bay-Superior North NDP MPP Lise Vaugeois told CBC News that London's case is the first of its kind that she's heard of but she's willing to appeal to the ministry on London's behalf.

London, meanwhile, has been seeking health care in the emergency room and paying for care at the nurse practitioner's office when she can afford it, she said.

She has tried getting prescriptions at pharmacies but has found pharmacists reluctant to prescribe anything for her without knowing her medical history. 

She is also foregoing some care all together, she said. 

"I do have chronic allergies, and I need immunotherapy for that," she said.

"Unfortunately, with immunotherapy, you need to get weekly injections, so for me to do that, because I'm paying for health care, I would have to pay the $70 to $90 weekly to get that immunotherapy. So that is another thing I've avoided doing. I'm not getting treatment for my pretty severe allergies."

The Ontario College of Family Physicians released new numbers on July 11 showing that 2.5 million patients are now without a family doctor in the province — up from 1.8 million in 2020.

What's more, more than half a million people travel more than 50 kilometres to see their doctor. 

"Communities across this province are struggling with the shortage of family physicians," said Dr. Mekalai Kumanan, the president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians.  

"And when our patients are moving to another community for whatever reason, I think what's happening is they're just not able to find a new family doctor in that new community so they continue to stay connected to their old family physician."

People who lack access to a family doctor often end up relying on urgent care clinics and emergency rooms for help and receiving treatment from doctors who don't know their medical history, Kumanan said.