A Victoria-area senior bought a newspaper classified ad to beg for help to find a family doctor for her husband
A Victoria-area senior will likely have a family physician soon, but only after his desperate wife bought a newspaper classified ad to beg for help.
Eight months ago, Michael Mort, 82, became one of almost one million British Columbians without a family doctor when his physician retired. Ms. Mort tried calling every walk-in clinic in the Victoria area, but wasn’t able to get an appointment.Mr. Mort had used Telus’s telemedicine platform for health guidance. But Ms. Mort said that last Wednesday, she learned her husband would need a doctor to renew his prescriptions.
“And I panicked, because if I don’t solve the problem for Michael, nobody else was going to,” she said. “I’m responsible for him. I’m his caregiver for 50 years.”“I had a real sense of shame that I was making him so vulnerable. Putting his name out and saying that we need help. We’re very private people. But I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”
“He needs somebody who can do his physical exam. I can’t bear the responsibility for that,” Ms. Mort said. “I’m going to lose him years earlier than I need to if somebody doesn’t do something. And there’s thousands of us out there. And I’m not just talking seniors. I’m talking Indigenous people. I’m talking children. ... It’s everybody,” she said.
“We know many people in the province are feeling the effects of the capacity challenges our health-care system is facing, and this individual is no different,” the statement said. ”But we are committed to working in collaboration with family physicians to address these long-standing issues.”
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