Hundreds more Londoners out of a doctor after university cracks down on employee patient list

Kendra Seguin · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

During a province-wide doc shortage, Western University is cracking down connected who tin usage their worker household clinic.

The session is bumping patients disconnected their roster who are not full-time main field employees, a alteration they accidental is owed to a constricted capableness to dainty patients and a increasing waitlist. 

Staff astatine the affiliate King's and Huron colleges, part-time and declaration employees, and erstwhile post-doctoral scholars are each losing entree to the session successful mid-August, module unions told CBC News.

Some radical accidental they are conscionable uncovering out, module unions told CBC News, sometimes erstwhile they telephone to marque an appointment. 

"Having the continuity of attraction of a household doc is beauteous important," said Geoff Read, an subordinate prof astatine Huron, who learned astir the alteration done an email sent by the college's module relation this week.  

Read's household of 5 has been utilizing the session for 16 years, and it's determination that his woman received a breast-cancer diagnosis, his girl receives continuous attraction for a kidney disease, and helium visits regularly to pick up supplies for his benignant 2 diabetes. 

"Western is simply a large leader successful the London country with a batch of employees, truthful the information that it's providing this work to its employees means that those radical aren't taking up spots astatine different household signifier clinics," helium said. 

The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) said 2,500 of the existent 4,000 patients connected the clinic's roster will suffer entree to the clinic. Western's communications section did not corroborate this number, contempt aggregate requests for clarification. 

Spokesperson Stephen Ledgley said Thursday that the session contacted 800 radical astir losing entree to service. 

The schoolhouse said this is not a argumentation change, but a argumentation enforcement, arsenic the session was primitively intended for full-time main field employees. There are 250 eligible unit connected the clinic's waitlist, said Western vice-provost John Doerksen erstwhile asked astir the alteration successful February. 

He said the assemblage volition proceed to connection superior attraction to retired full-time employees and their families. 

"The session made efforts implicit these years to enactment arsenic galore further patients arsenic possible," Doerksen said. "Supporting those who bash not person full-time Western employment is nary longer sustainable."

Doerksen says that portion module astatine affiliate colleges whitethorn person accessed the session successful the past, they were ne'er technically eligible for the service, arsenic they are not employed by the university.

"That gets a small muddy," said UWOFA president Johanna Weststar. "We person a batch of radical who really thatch connected the main field and the affiliates, truthful sometimes it tin beryllium hard to track."

Adding to the household doc shortage

There person been talks betwixt UWOFA and Western astir changing session entree for adjacent to a year, Weststar said. She added that the national was not made alert up of clip that diligent lists would beryllium tightened.  

"We were told that the session is rather a spot implicit capableness and we cognize that implicit the past fig of years, they person been having staffing shortages with an inability to enlistee and clasp doctors successful the clinic," she said. 

There are adjacent to 140,000 Londoners without a household doctor, according to Andrea Loewen, whose occupation is to enlistee doctors to the area. She is presenting astir doc retention astatine a metropolis assembly committee gathering adjacent week, wherever she volition picture the challenges London faces bringing successful and keeping doctors. 

Read has already started his hunt for a caller household physician, which helium said volition beryllium a challenge. He said the committedness of a household doc influenced him to thatch astatine Huron backmost successful 2009, and helium started utilizing the work close away.

"If they're going to extremity that, past that's going to beryllium hundreds, if not thousands of radical abruptly successful the cookware looking for household doctors."

Weststar said the session is simply a gully for galore module coming to Western from different cities, knowing they volition person contiguous entree to aesculapian attraction amid a provincial doc shortage.

"It's precise important to admit that the household doc shortage is simply a existent crisis," Weststar said. "Having the Employee & Family Health Clinic connected field is simply a truly invaluable service."