Patients wait for hours at a Warman, Sask. walk-in clinic. Now the city is losing another family doctor

Legends Medical Clinic starts taking walk-ins at9 a.m. CST. By 9:20 a.m Thursday, the expected wait was already more than three hours.

Legends is one of few walk-ins clinic in Warman, Sask., a city about 15 kilometres northeast ofSaskatoon.

Dr. Marcel Smit, one of two doctors at the private facilitylooking after walk-in patients, said he usually sees 45 to 50 people a day.

The physician credits a lack of primary caredoctors in the city for his extended workload.

Warman isone of the fastest growing cities in Saskatchewan. It'shome to about 12,400 people, up from 4,800 in 2006.

Warman has struggled to keep family doctors for years. In 2016, four of the fivefamily doctors in the city at the time left.

Now one of the city's few remaining doctors is leaving in the new year. Legends will then be the only clinic offering walk-in hours in Warman.

"The waits are going to become longer, patients are going to be more frustrated, which in turn makes it a tougher day at the office for us," Smit said.

Concerns about care

Today, there are no family doctors taking on new patients in Warman.

"It's very concerning. The number 1 thing is the patient's care isn't adequate," Smit said.

He said around 60 per cent of the patients he sees in a day don't have a family doctor.

Noha Aziz and her three children have spent many hours at Legendsbecause they haven't had a family doctor in more a year.

She hasn't looked elsewhere for a new one.

"We live in Warman, we want something close to here," Aziz said.

She said the family will sometimes go to a hospital in nearby Saskatoon if needed.

Increased stress

Smit saidthe lack of family doctors in Warman is leading to a cycle of burnout among the physicians who are stillthere.

"Doctors begin to work less, they leave, we've had some doctors quit walk-ins because they physically can't keep up with their own patients and the burden of walk-in," Dr. Smit said."That in turn makes it more difficult for other doctors, which leads to more burnout."

Legends Medical Clinic shut its doors temporarily inmid-Octoberbecause of physician shortagesand verbal abuse from patients. It stayed closed for almost two weeks.

WATCH|Doctor shortage in Saskatchewan means many patients are turning to walk-in clinics:

Doctor shortage in Saskatchewan means many patients are turning to walk-in clinics

2 years ago

Duration 2:27

Theres a shortage of family doctors in Saskatchewan and that is increasing demand at walk-in clinics.

The family doctor shortage is a provincewide issue, according to Dr. Andries Muller, president of the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians.

"We definitely know that many physician have stopped the practice or have the left the province," Dr. Muller said.

"What happens then is that there's an increased burden on the physicians who are left behind. Not only are there a number of people who do not have a family physician, but now those who are lucky to have one find it harder and harder to get to the appointments."

Smit saidthe lack of family doctorsleads to increased burden onwalk-in clinics and emergency rooms across the province.

He said some of the overflow could be fixed by increased investment in primary care.

"If we have more doctors, primary care would be better," Dr. Smit said. "People would have better care, hopefully less people get sickand then people wouldhave to go to the hospital less often as well."

In September, the Saskatchewan government unveiled a plan to hire andretain more health-care professionals.

The province says it aims to bring in roughly 1,000 more physicians, nurses and other health-care support staff to fill vacancies.

In October, Health Minister Paul Merrimansaidthe province hadbeen able to recruit 107 doctors in the previous12 months, which he said workedout to a net increase of 40 doctors over that time period.

LISTEN| CBC's White Coat Black Arttravelled to Legends Medical Clinic in Warman:

White Coat Black Art26:27Don't blame the walk-in clinic for the delays to see a doctor

Saskatchewan has lost so many of its family care doctors in the last year that 200,000 "orphaned" patients are relying on walk-in clinics to get medical attention. Legends Medical Clinic in Warman is in the middle of the crisis, trying to meet the needs of all who seek their walk-in services but patients often wait for hours to see a doctor.