Amid a doctor shortage, a veteran physician in Yarmouth, N.S. is still working despite three attempts to retire.
āI canāt stand the guilt!ā Dr. Shelagh Leahey, who has been practicing medicine in the oceanfront town for 42 years, told CTV Atlantic.
As doctors disappear from Yarmouth, Dr. Leahey has been caring for an increasing number of so-called orphan patients -- people who do not have a family physician of their own.
āI see whoever needs help,ā Dr. Leahey explained. āI donāt make any rules because, whatās the point?ā
One such patient is Bonnie Hendsbee.
āIām supposed to have checkups on my kidney and blood work,ā she said from Dr. Leaheyās office. āIn order to do that, I have to go into emergency, sit there four to six hours just to get a referral.ā
Thankfully, Hendsbee has found Dr. Leahey, who works out of unassuming building down a Yarmouth side street that looks more like a home than a health clinic. Dr. Leahey says the clinic has become an orphanage of sorts for patients like Hendsbee.
āI have seen acute breast cancers in young women, I have seen very severe diabetics who are totally uncontrolled,ā Dr. Leahey said. āI have seen people with limbs that were in peril of being lost from infectionā¦ I could go on and on and on. It scares me that these people who donāt want to go to emergency because they know itās not a crisis that moment are wandering around with nobody to take care of them.ā
In the last year alone, Yarmouth lost five family doctors -- a staggering number for a community of just over 7,000 people.
Another affected patient is Dermot OāSullivan, who recently found himself without a family doctor for the fifth time in 15 years.
āIāve spent 10 hours one time waiting for a renewal of a prescription and eight hours for another time waiting for a prescription when we were out of doctors,ā he said. āSo, thatās the kind of thing weāre faced with when we donāt have a physician here.ā
This time, though, OāSullivan is taking heart with the knowledge that while his family doctor might be leaving his practice, he will be taking up a full-time position at the local ER.
āThat will mean he will be servicing all those people like myself who do not have medical service available, which in this area is quite high,ā OāSullivan said.
Family doctors in the area say they are losing colleagues because of intense workloads. According to local general practitioner Dr. Joe Gillis, OāSullivanās physician may have found a way to strike a better work-life balance.
āI do family practice, I do obstetrics, deliver babies, I do prenatal care, I do some ER shifts, four to six hour shiftsā¦ in support of the other main ER doc, and I do hospitalists service,ā Dr. Gillis said, explaining the workload of a Yarmouth GP.
Despite the intensity of his job, Dr. Gillis says he knows that heās a family doctor at heart. Still, the husband and father of three admits that finding a work-life balance can be difficult.
ā(You want to) maintain a quality of care for your patientsā¦ ensuring that you donāt go home at night thinking, āAh, I forgot to do that,ā or, āI wished I did that,āā he said. āVersus making sure you make your kidsā dance recitals or just spending time with them on the weekend, or take the Christmas lights off the trees outside, which my wife reminded me this morning I still havenāt done.ā
Dealing with the duelling obligations of work and home can be difficult, to say the least. And when a doctor leaves the community, everyone else is left to pick up the slack.
āI am not the answer,ā Dr. Leahey, who has given up on the idea of retiring anytime soon, said of the townās doctor shortage. āWalk-in clinics, orphan patient clinics are not the answer -- but theyāre better than nothing, and thatās all I can do. I can do better than nothing.ā
With a report from CTV Atlanticās Laura Brown