'Maybe we shouldn't have moved here': Military family struggles to find doctor in Greater Victoria
A young military couple that's new to Vancouver Island is scrambling to find a family doctor, and they're questioning their move to the capital region entirely.
The couple and their two young sons recently packed up and headed to Sooke, B.C., from Winnipeg after father Yaz Malhas was transferred to CFB Esquimalt.
He says the stress of the move is compounded by B.C.'s health-care crisis.
"That's a whole different level, and I think it's beyond stressful at this point," he said.
Malhas says he has a doctor provided to him through the military, but his wife and their two sons need to find one.
"It's really concerning, as a parent of young children," said Steph Malhas.
The family says that in Winnipeg, and in other Canadian cities they've lived in, it took no time to find a family doctor.
"We never had this problem elsewhere – and we've been all over the country," said Yaz.
"So I was shocked when we moved here and found out that this was the situation," he said.
'PRESSING PROBLEM'
The family's struggle is one that's shared by hundreds of thousands of British Columbians who are currently without a family doctor.
It's a problem that was recently highlighted by an aging Central Saanich, B.C., couple who resorted to taking out an ad in a newspaper to plead for a family doctor to help fill prescriptions.
On Wednesday, B.C. Premier John Horgan acknowledged that the province's health-care system was under strain.
"It's a real and pressing problem, and we're doing everything we can to address it," he said.
"But it needs to be across the country, not just across the community."
Horgan says he and fellow premiers pressed the prime minister for healthcare funding during a summit in Victoria last month.
He says he's hopeful that urgently needed funding will arrive before the summer is over.
Yaz says even though he wanted to come to B.C., where they have family members, the ordeal has given him second thoughts.
"Maybe we shouldn't have moved here," he told CTV News. "Had I known that we might not be able to find a family doctor."
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