Greater Victoria women launch petition to retain family doctors, walk-in clinics

Two women with complex health-care needs are getting loud with their calls to fix a broken health-care system.

They're raising awareness about the hurdles people are facing to be seen by doctors and circulating a petition that demands action from the province.

"I get scared for my future about what kind of care we'll all receive," says Joy Williamson.

The Langford, B.C., woman is receiving treatment for breast cancer. After looking for a family doctor for nearly a decade, she's been left with a painful question on her journey: What if having one would've made a difference in her treatment and a misdiagnosis along the way?

"I will never know if that physical could've prevented this tumour from developing to the point that it did," she says. "And causing me to have a full mastectomy and having my lymph nodes removed."

She says her oncologist also tells her the tumour might've been developing for two years prior to it being diagnosed.

Now she joins a chorus of people insisting on a better way as Greater Victoria GPs dissolve their practices and urgent primary care centres are pushed to their limits.

"There is a general shortage of qualified people in the health-care field," said Island Health's top doctor, Dr. Richard Stanwick, before his retirement last week. "The fact that this is also manifesting in primary care shouldn't be a surprise."

Another Greater Victoria woman was among the patients who received word recently that her family will lose their doctor at View Royal's Eagle Creek Medical Clinic. Two physicians there announced they'll be closing their practice come March.

Camille Currie says her family has complex health needs and she worries most about her kids.

"It feels like it's putting their lives at risk," says the mother of two.

She's created a petition demanding the province fix its failures to retain the doctors B.C. has and attract more.

The B.C. Health Ministry says it has directed the deputy minister to come up with a strategy to mitigate the problems on the South Island, adding it is working to stabilize clinics in crisis and still sees its primary care strategy as a solution

"Being within the medical system consistently for over a year with this kind of treatment has pushed me to my breaking point realizing what people are enduring," says Williamson.

She's no stranger to the hardships of the system, depending on walk-ins for care or emergency rooms when those fail.

"We need more walk-in clinics and we need more GPs," she says.

Williamson is finishing chemotherapy and expects to undergo radiation therapy after that.