Ontario patients visiting emergency rooms out of fear of being booted by family doctor

Ontario patients are now visiting emergency departments out of fear of being de-rostered from their doctor’s office – a loophole that results in hospitals dealing with non-urgent cases, and disrupts continuity of care paramount to family medicine, according to health-care experts.

It was a busy night in the emergency department of a hospital in London, Ont., and Jennefer Muir, a registered nurse of 16 years, was working the triage desk when a mother came in with an ear-infected child.

“I asked them why they didn't go to their family doctor, why they didn't go to a walk-in clinic and they stated that their family doctor was currently away … And they had been told in the past that if they go to a walk-in clinic or the urgent care centre, they'll be taken off the roster for their family doctor,” Muir said.

The wait was projected to be eight hours, but they stayed, Muir said. “Unfortunately, it happens all the time,” she added.

The mother is among a number of Ontario patients who are now visiting emergency departments out of fear of being de-rostered from their doctor’s office – a loophole that results in hospitals dealing with non-urgent cases, and disrupts continuity of care paramount to family medicine, according to health-care experts.

Ontario's Ministry of Health told CTV News a patient visiting an emergency room is not a ministry condition for de-enrollment from a physician’s roster. However, the ministry said, a physician may decide to de-enroll a patient if they receive care from more than one health care provider. For example, at a walk-in clinic.

“But that doesn't mean I'm firing them,” Dr. Allan Grill, Chief of Family Medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital, said, explaining how the enrollment system at his clinic works, in which doctors are paid per patient, regardless of how many times they visit.

“It just means I'm putting them in a different category so that my office doesn't lose the funding we're getting from the government to take care of that roster of patients,” Dr. Grill added.