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As Canadians we’ve had a long run with our public healthcare system. For generations, we turned to our GP’s to help connect us with specialists when their knowledge and skills was required. Over the years we’ve even come to grudgingly accept the long wait times for specialists – or even to simply get an appointment with our GP to get referred to a specialist.

However, with 22% of Canadians without a primary care physician, waiting for a GP to make the referral isn’t even an option. And the impact can be dire: extended wait times for medical treatment can have significant impacts on health outcomes, mortality rates, and economic costs.

Impact on Canadians

Health and Mortality Impacts: Long wait times for specialist care can lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment, resulting in worsened conditions and increased risk of mortality.

For instance, delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment have been directly linked to higher mortality rates. Similarly, conditions like heart disease or diabetes can progress to more severe stages if not managed by specialists promptly. Stress, anxiety, and pain associated with delays also negatively affect patients’ overall health and quality of life​.

Economic Costs: The Fraser Institute estimated that the economic cost of wait times, due to lost wages and productivity, was $2.8 billion in 2020. Including the reduced quality of life, this figure rises to $8.4 billion annually.

Inequities in Access: Rural and underserved areas are disproportionately affected due to fewer specialists available locally. This exacerbates health disparities, as individuals in these regions may face longer wait times or travel great distances for care​

Fortunately, there are people among us who are identifying the issues and building solutions to address them.

Why Does It Take So Long To Get Referred – Even If You Have a GP?

The Canadian healthcare system notoriously lags behind in adoption of technical solutions that could streamline many workflows and benefit patient outcomes. One area of concern is the referral system that many GP’s currently use to get their patients in to see specialists. The “system” is decidedly antiquated and involves the GP’s office reaching out to a specialist’s office to secure an appointment on behalf of their patient.

According to Peter Vuong, Founder and CEO of Sentry Health, a technologically integrated, multidisciplinary health care provider, because of this legacy system, important communication gaps exist that cause extended wait times.

“A doctor sends a referral, and even if it’s a specialist that they trust and want to refer to, they don’t know if the specialist is accepting patients or not, nor do they know the wait times to see them. The GP then must wait for the specialist’s admin to go through hundreds of inbox requests or faxes and reject or accept. If rejected, the patient and their GP are back at square one. If accepted, the specialist must get in touch with the patient to set up the appointment. This type of communication chain can easily break down and cause weeks of delay, which ultimately leads to poorer patient outcomes,” said Vuong.

“It’s not the fault of the family physician, it’s because they don’t have access to the information. Their intention is to get their patients an appointment as soon as possible but it just doesn’t happen without the right tools. They’re in the dark as well” explained Vuong.

What if You Don’t Have a Family Doctor?

Canadians without family doctors are particularly anxious about accessing specialists. Many use walk-in clinics to get a referral to a specialist, and while this is a viable means of accessing specialists, there are certain drawbacks when going to a walk-in clinic for this purpose. Walk-ins are set up to help with one-time visits for minor illnesses or injuries, but ongoing, continuous care that considers your past medical history and any health complexities is not what they are set up to do.

Additionally, unless the patient brings their medical records with them (which is strongly advised) the clinic will not pass on information to the specialist other than what they have documented at the appointment, and they usually do not provide any follow-up care after the patient has seen the specialist.

“This is a terrible situation. Before I found my new doctor, as a cancer survivor, I had to use a walk in clinic video call service to get a referral for my yearly mammogram. it was very scary not having any regular care. I really feel for anyone facing that challenge and not having a doctor for follow up care. “

Health Insider Member – June 2024 Health Insider Survey

Efforts to solve these issues include introducing e-consult platforms like RACE and Champlain BASE. These platforms help GP’s and nurse practitioners connect with specialists, but even if you have a GP, this process could simply take too long.

Sentry Health is a solution that Vuong and his team developed to address specialist access issues for patients. Operating in Ontario, Sentry offers a digital platform for medical practices that eases workflow and makes referrals much more streamlined, thus reducing wait times.

Virtual Family Practice

Additionally, Sentry Health has developed a virtual family practice accompanied by physical clinics around Ontario, all covered by OHIP. Patients can use the virtual service for timely care of minor issues, while the physical clinics exist to address issues that need to be attended to in person.

If a specialist referral is needed, the referring doctor in the virtual clinic can see specialist availability within the system along with other pertinent information and book the specialist with the click of a button. Perhaps most importantly, medical records are interconnected, so the specialist has immediate access to the patient’s entire medical record.

“I willingly paid a private facility to get me a timely appt with a dermatologist and was pleased with the service provided. As a senior I am very concerned about my entire family’s lack of access to a family doctor. It’s been 5+ years and no potential leads. The virtual triage and assessment centre is doing a great job in the meantime. But there is no substitute for a face to face appointment for some health concerns.”

Health Insider Member – June 2024 Health Insider Survey

Virtual clinic+ is a virtual, medicare-covered family practice operating in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. Patients with valid coverage in these provinces will not be charged for their telehealth service. Patients outside of those provinces pay a fee to access their telehealth services. Referrals are also provided. In-person medical needs for Virtualclinic+ patients are fulfilled with Well Clinics.

Other virtual medical clinics such as Maple also offer treatment for many ailments and referrals to specialists, however, depending on your province, they charge a fee to use the platform. Felix offers virtual healthcare for a nominal fee and provides referrals to specialists. Private Insurance may reimburse, check with your provider.

For Canadians who have lost their family doctors, it’s a relief to know that powerful solutions built by mavericks and gamechangers are on the horizon. They won’t look like what we’ve been used to, but as with many things, what we were used to has now been surpassed many times over by new approaches and technical solutions that present better outcomes.

Subscribe to The Health Insider today to stay updated on important health initiatives available to Canadians.

~Read more from The Health Insider~

The information provided on TheHealthInsider.ca is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. TheHealthInsider.ca advises consulting a medical professional or healthcare provider when seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.

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