B.C. senior who posted desperate newspaper ad finds family doctor

An 82-year-old man from Vancouver Island whose pharmacy told him it could no longer refill his medications without an updated prescription has found a new family doctor, after his wife posted a desperate ad in a local newspaper.

Michael Mort’s wife Janet paid nearly $300 for the ad in Saturday’s Victoria Times Colonist, which read “WANTED: BC Licensed Medical Doctor for Prescription Renewal.” It offered to pay “any reasonable fee” to a doctor who could write Michael’s prescriptions.

On Tuesday, a Victoria doctor who saw the ad on social media offered to take Michael on as a patient in her family practice.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am, because we were on the precipice of a terrible situation,” said Janet Mort. But she said that’s tempered by guilt that so many others haven’t been able to find a GP. “I feel, why me? Why Michael?” she said.

BC Liberal health critic Shirley Bond says the fact the Morts had to place the ad after an unsuccessful year-long search for a new family doctor is a symptom of a primary care system in crisis.

“I think it would be devastating for any family, especially a senior, to be in a position to put in an ad in a newspaper to get a prescription filled in B.C. It’s not something we think would be possible,” said Bond, who blames the provincial government.

Dr. Tahmeena Ali, the president-elect of B.C. Family Doctors, applauds Janet Mort’s creativity in finding her husband a doctor this way, but says it should never have had to happen.

“Obviously not everyone has the means to put in an ad, and there has got to be a better way, that’s not a long term solution to this complex problem,” said Ali.

B.C.’s health minister was not made available for a interview to discuss the newspaper ad and the province’s primary care shortage.

In a statement, the ministry said in part: “We know many people in the province are feeling the effects of the capacity challenges our health-care system is facing, and this individual is no different…..We take the challenge seriously, and are working as efficiently as we can to improve primary care for people in B.C.”