SASKATOON, Sask. — It has already been about six years since Mitch Bellefleur moved from Weyburn to the city, and he still does not have access to a family physician. He had a family doctor growing up in southeastern Saskatchewan, but things changed when he was 10, as their physician moved to a larger city with more opportunities.
When their family doctor left the community, his family received no guidance on finding a replacement. With most doctors already working at capacity, Bellefleur spent the next several years of his childhood without a regular health-care provider. When he graduated from high school, he moved to Saskatoon to attend university, believing access to a family doctor would be easier in a larger city.
Bellefleur, who shared his story at a media event on Friday, Oct. 30, at the Saskatchewan NDP's constituency office on 8th Street, said finding a family physician was his priority when he moved to Saskatoon. However, he still has none. Despite repeated efforts, he has been unable to secure a regular provider. He has gone through denial after denial, with local clinics turning him down since their doctors are working over capacity.
Although he considers himself fortunate to be healthy, he says going so long without routine medical care means he is essentially navigating his health without knowing the full picture. He worries about others facing the same circumstances, particularly people living with chronic illnesses who require consistent medical attention.
“I've never had a regular physical, never had blood work done. I'm also flying blind here in a sense,” he said, adding that he has tried several approaches to finding a physician and worries that other students who move to Saskatoon each year to pursue their education may encounter similar problems accessing medical care.
He regularly visits a walk-in clinic, and whenever he sees a doctor, he asks whether they would consider taking him as a regular patient. The answer has consistently been no because physicians are already at capacity. He also contacted a clinic where family medicine residents train, hoping to be paired with a physician in training who could eventually become his long-term provider.
However, he was told he already needed a family doctor at the clinic to qualify for that arrangement, and the lack of a centralized, up-to-date list of physicians accepting new patients has made it even harder. He remembers a time when the province published a list of doctors taking patients, but says it disappeared shortly after he moved to Saskatoon.
Bellefleur said that without that information, cold-calling clinics can feel like an exercise in frustration. “It just seems even with new doctors coming into the city, coming into the system, they just appear to be inaccessible unless you're already set up.”
Temporary solution
Instead, he continues to rely on walk-in clinics when specific health concerns arise, including issues involving a possible broken bone or changes to his skin that he wanted examined. But even getting into a walk-in clinic can mean a lengthy wait. During his most recent experience, he arrived around 7:45 a.m., hoping to be among the first patients, only to find approximately 15 people already waiting outside.
He estimates patients can wait another two to three hours before being seen in a walk-in clinic. He also tried virtual care through a nurse practitioner service offered by a former employer, but says it has limitations when a concern requires an in-person examination. “Definitely in some senses that's helpful, but definitely not a full solution.”
Bellefleur says his experience reflects broader challenges facing communities across Saskatchewan. Although he has been away from Weyburn for a decade, he still has family living there and has heard about the difficulties residents face finding family doctors. He believes the situation has deteriorated since he left, with physicians departing and remaining doctors facing increasingly heavy workloads.
Access to specialized services, particularly mental health support for young people, can be even more difficult in smaller communities, sometimes requiring residents to travel to Regina or elsewhere. “I think it's probably gotten worse. I think it's only the issue has snowballed more,” Bellefleur said of access to health care in Weyburn.
The issue he is raising is bigger than his own lengthy search, since access to basic health care should not depend on luck, personal connections or how much time someone can spend contacting clinics and waiting in line. He believes Saskatchewan needs a co-ordinated approach that ensures residents can find a provider before their health concerns become emergencies.
After nearly two decades without a regular family physician, Bellefleur says things need to improve. “It feels like accessing health care in the province is unfortunately a matter of luck as opposed to the right that every citizen should have to health care. I think that makes it quite clear that it's time for change.
“Everyone in the province should have a family doctor and a consistent person,” he said. “It would be fantastic to see something in place where when your family doctor is leaving, that burden not fall to the individual to find where that new health care is coming from.”
SaskToday asked the government for its side of the story, but it had not responded by publication time.
Failures in the health care system
Saskatchewan NDP associate shadow minister for health Keith Jorgenson said Bellefleur’s experience is an example of what he describes as failures in the province's primary health care system. He argued that residents should be connected to primary health care teams and that the responsibility for finding replacement care when a physician leaves should not fall entirely on patients.
He said Saskatchewan’s health care system is failing residents who cannot find a family doctor, with the provincial government doing too little to manage access to primary care, reflecting broader problems in the province's primary health care system. He criticized Premier Scott Moe and the health minister for repeatedly saying their plans are working while residents continue struggling to find doctors.
“You know, it's really frustrating when you hear the Minister of Health and our Premier Scott Moe say day after day after day that their plans to improve our health-care system are working, and we can see everyday examples of how their plans have failed,” Jorgenson said.
Jorgenson described Bellefleur's circumstances as an example of how residents are being left without consistent medical care, forcing them to rely on walk-in clinics and emergency departments instead of having an established health-care provider. He said this approach affects not only patients' health outcomes and quality of life but also increases costs throughout the health-care system.
“It is a really crazy way to run a health-care system where we have people continually forced to go to walk-in clinics rather than have a primary health-care provider,” said Jorgenson, adding that one of the biggest concerns is the lack of government co-ordination when family physicians retire, leave the province or stop accepting patients.
He said the responsibility for finding replacement care should not fall entirely on people already struggling to navigate the system. Jorgenson also criticized the province for no longer publishing a list of doctors accepting new patients, suggesting the government may have stopped because few names would be available.
“I think the reason why they don't publish it anymore is that there would probably be no one on the list,” said Jorgenson, arguing that the lack of information wastes the time of both patients and medical offices.
Jorgenson said the government has a responsibility to help patients find new providers when their existing physicians leave. He estimated that approximately 300,000 Saskatchewan residents may be without a family doctor, although he acknowledged the figure was an approximate estimate.
He also pointed to the amount of time residents spend calling clinics only to be told they cannot accept additional patients. “When doctors retire and leave, there's a role for the government to play in helping try and find those people who are abandoned a new primary health-care provider.”
He accused the government of abandoning that responsibility, adding that it puts people's health and access to basic care at risk. He also questioned the government's handling of health care information and patient flow, arguing that better public reporting could help prevent individual facilities from becoming overwhelmed.
Jorgenson suggested the province could provide a centralized website showing which doctors are accepting patients and current emergency department wait times. He said such information would help residents make informed decisions about where to seek care while reducing unnecessary pressure on already busy facilities.
“The government doesn't seem to do any of that,” he said, arguing that patients and health care workers expect the province to manage the system more effectively. He also accused the government of being detached from the difficulties patients are experiencing. “The first step to fixing the problem is to admit that you have the problem.”
Jorgenson also doubted the Saskatchewan government will meet its commitment to connect every resident to primary health care by the end of 2028. He said the number of people losing access to care appears to be increasing rather than declining, estimating that approximately 100,000 people have lost access to primary health care over the past decade.
He argued that even if every medical student graduated and remained in Saskatchewan, the number of new physicians would not be enough to provide care for everyone currently without a family doctor. He said improving the situation will require more than promises, calling for a co-ordinated approach that connects every Saskatchewan resident with a primary health care team.
He said the NDP has already released proposals to strengthen primary care and ensure people do not face the same circumstances as Bellefleur. He also argued that recruitment and retention depend on health care workers having confidence in the government's leadership and direction, and that Saskatchewan residents deserve a health care system that takes responsibility for connecting patients with care rather than leaving them to find it on their own.
“The people who work within the system want a sense that the people that are running it have a plan, they care, they've got a direction, things are going to get better,” said Jorgenson, who also believes the current government is creating uncertainty and chaos.
