The only family doctor in Wheatley, Ont., is retiring, putting the future of care in question

The upcoming retirement of Wheatley's longtime doctor is a cause for concern for many of the over 1,400 people who call him their family physician, and is putting the future of medical care in the southwestern Ontario community in question.

"Now the crunch is on — time to go," said Dr. David Eaton's assistant, Nancy Plumb. "Are we going to forget about the elderly?"

Plumb said Eaton has been providing services in the community for 47 years, and most of the clientele at the clinic where he works are older than 65 and need services close to home. He's set to retire Dec. 31.

"It's not so easy for them to find transportation to get into Windsor, Leamington [or] Tilbury," Plumb said. "I don't think any community is suffering like Wheatley."

Canada, in general, is facing a family doctor shortage as fewer medical school graduates are choosing family medicine, "after witnessing the rising expectations placed on family practices without appropriate resources and the resulting physician burnout," the College of Family Physicians of Canada noted on its website. Adding to the shortage is the fact some physicians are choosing to retire earlier than planned, partially related to COVID-19 pandemic exhaustion. 

In Eaton's case, he has been trying to organize his retirement for awhile, waiting to see if there would be a replacement, but as of now, there is no succession plan, according to his daughter, Hope Eaton. She spoke on behalf of her father, who did not want to talk to CBC News because of his frustration with the matter.

"We keep running into roadblocks where we find out there's no funding or the area is not deemed to be underserviced because we're part of Chatham-Kent, or Chatham proper has enough doctors, so the county, in a lot of ways, gets forgotten," Hope Eaton said, adding her father put off retirement out of responsibility to his patients.

"There's certainly a need here that if he left is going to go unmet. I think that's of great concern to him and of great concern to a lot of his patients."

Hopes at least for nurse practitioners

The municipality of Chatham-Kent has a task force assigned to recruiting doctors, in Wheatley and other areas. According to Coun. Melissa Harrigan, those attempts have been unsuccessful, and right now, 20,000 people in Chatham-Kent don't have a family physician.

"You only get kind of one chance a year to recruit those graduates that are coming out of medical schools and we know that the rate of requirement is starting to exceed the rate of graduation," Harrigan said. 

"The doctors coming in don't want practices as large as the doctors that are exiting."

Harrigan said there is a wait list for family doctors that people can join, and they can also ask doctors' offices in nearby communities if they're accepting new patients. Yet, many people still don't have a family doctor. 

"If you don't have a family doctor, you don't receive the pro-active health care — those annual checkups, prescription refills — those things that you need to keep you healthy and keep you out of the hospital."

The town centre in Wheatley is still partially closed off due to last summer's explosion. Harrigan said she hopes a plan moving forward for that area will include health services.

"For our aging communities in a small town, access to health services and primary care is so important, " she said.

Plumb said that if getting a doctor to cover the area isn't possible, it's been hoped that nurse practitioners may be able to take over the clinic, but requests for funding from the Ontario government haven't been met.

"Does the government want all 1,400 patients to be going in to the [hospital] ER to get service done?" Plumb said. "We need help. We need answers and we need those now,"

No doctor 'a big problem,' 92-year-old says

Leonard H. Omstead, 92, has long had Eaton as his family doctor. Omstead said while it wouldn't be difficult for him to access services in the community, because he's still able to drive, others aren't in the same situation.

"There's a lot of people 75 and 80 that can't drive because of eyesight or some reason or another," Omstead said, adding he likes the idea of having a nurse practitioner's office in the town.

"A nurse practitioner can at least give prescriptions, and what are people going to do with high blood pressure that can't get their medication? And then there' s people with sugar diabetes — at least a practitioner could look after those.

"It's a big problem that needs to be solved," Omstead added.

CBC has reached out the Ontario government for comment, but as of Wednesday mid-afternoon, there's been no response.

In an emailed statement to CBC News on Friday, the Ministry of Health said people in Ontario without a primary care provider or family doctor can register for the Health Care Connect voluntary program.

"The program prioritizes registrants for a referral according to their health-care needs, and those with complex or urgent health needs are considered high priority," the statement reads.