Amid a doctor shortage, a veteran physician in Yarmouth, N.S. is still working despite three attempts to retire.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 stand the guilt!鈥� 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.
鈥淚 see whoever needs help,鈥� Dr. Leahey explained. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 make any rules because, what鈥檚 the point?鈥�
One such patient is Bonnie Hendsbee.
鈥淚鈥檓 supposed to have checkups on my kidney and blood work,鈥� she said from Dr. Leahey鈥檚 office. 鈥淚n order to do that, I have to go into emergency, sit there four to six hours just to get a referral.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 have seen acute breast cancers in young women, I have seen very severe diabetics who are totally uncontrolled,鈥� Dr. Leahey said. 鈥淚 have seen people with limbs that were in peril of being lost from infection鈥� I could go on and on and on. It scares me that these people who don鈥檛 want to go to emergency because they know it鈥檚 not a crisis that moment are wandering around with nobody to take care of them.鈥�
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 O鈥橲ullivan, who recently found himself without a family doctor for the fifth time in 15 years.
鈥淚鈥檝e 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,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, that鈥檚 the kind of thing we鈥檙e faced with when we don鈥檛 have a physician here.鈥�
This time, though, O鈥橲ullivan 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.
鈥淭hat 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,鈥� O鈥橲ullivan said.
Family doctors in the area say they are losing colleagues because of intense workloads. According to local general practitioner Dr. Joe Gillis, O鈥橲ullivan鈥檚 physician may have found a way to strike a better work-life balance.
鈥淚 do family practice, I do obstetrics, deliver babies, I do prenatal care, I do some ER shifts, four to six hour shifts鈥� in support of the other main ER doc, and I do hospitalists service,鈥� Dr. Gillis said, explaining the workload of a Yarmouth GP.
Despite the intensity of his job, Dr. Gillis says he knows that he鈥檚 a family doctor at heart. Still, the husband and father of three admits that finding a work-life balance can be difficult.
鈥�(You want to) maintain a quality of care for your patients鈥� ensuring that you don鈥檛 go home at night thinking, 鈥楢h, I forgot to do that,鈥� or, 鈥業 wished I did that,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淰ersus making sure you make your kids鈥� 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 haven鈥檛 done.鈥�
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.
鈥淚 am not the answer,鈥� Dr. Leahey, who has given up on the idea of retiring anytime soon, said of the town鈥檚 doctor shortage. 鈥淲alk-in clinics, orphan patient clinics are not the answer -- but they鈥檙e better than nothing, and that鈥檚 all I can do. I can do better than nothing.鈥�
With a report from CTV Atlantic鈥檚 Laura Brown
