N.S. couple felt they won ‘doctor lottery’ after years on wait-list. Now they’re back on it

A Nova Scotia couple waited years on the province's Need a Family Physician Registry. Just eight months after getting a doctor, they're being told the practice is shutting down.

When Len and Lyn Creighton found out last year they were being connected with a family doctor in their hometown of Windsor, N.S., they felt like they had won the “doctor lottery.”

“It’s like, ‘We won!'” described Lyn. “You’re excited, as if you won an actual lottery.”

The couple had been on the province’s Need a Family Physician Registry for several years. That waitlist numbers 157,264, or 15.9 per cent of the population, as of April 1.

Now, eight months after meeting that new doctor, they’re being told the clinic is closing — and they’re back at the bottom of that ever-growing waitlist.

“It’s a little frustrating and irritating to say the least. Just trying to retain a physician in this province lately. So, unfortunately for us, we’re again, after waiting several years before on the list … still waiting again for another physician,” said Len.

The family was told in July 2023 that there might be a physician opening up a practice at the Avon Medical Clinic.

“We basically went in September for a meet and greet with the physician and then had our first appointment in December and haven’t seen the physician since then,” said Len.

“And last week we received a letter in the mail saying that as of Aug. 1, the clinic will be closing up its practice and the physician is not available anymore to us.”