{"id":117299,"date":"2022-07-27T09:17:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T13:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=117299"},"modified":"2022-07-27T09:54:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T13:54:34","slug":"there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family physicians are struggling to keep up with demand, Dr. Melanie Mar, a family doctor, lead physician for the Algonquin Family Health Team, and co-chair of a physician committee at Huntsville hospital told council on July 25.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur family doctors are maxed out and as our population is increasing, we\u2019re really struggling to look after a fairly large and increasing unattached population. The wait time right now is about two years. So, if you come on board and you\u2019re looking for a family doctor you\u2019re going to probably wait at least that long,\u201d said Mar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An increasing number of people who have moved or are moving to the area as a result of COVID as well as those retiring to the area is putting further strain on an already fragile system, council heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The unattached patient population in Huntsville is currently estimated to be around 1,700 and continues to grow with more people relocating to Muskoka,” stated part of a resolution submitted by Mar put before council for approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar said many patients are not receiving preventative care or help to manage existing chronic illnesses and they\u2019re winding up sicker and seeking care at the hospital Emergency Room (ER), which is overwhelming ER doctors who are having to discharge patients who often wind up returning because they don\u2019t have a family doctor to guide them after discharge. Others are having to travel out of town or rely on virtual care services which can be suboptimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd so, in speaking with my physician colleagues we are trying to do our best to care for our community and looking at creative ways to do that,\u201d said Mar who also noted that it\u2019s a community problem that requires more than just the family physicians to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all want to come together with different partners, not just family doctors but the hospital, the Ontario Health Team, and hopefully the Town and find creative ways to look after our community so that we aren\u2019t sending all these people to Emerg\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said interim initiatives such as a year-round walk-in clinic are being explored while physician recruitment is ramped up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huntsville council agreed to support in principle any temporary measure to help alleviate physician shortages in the community and directed the CAO to continue working with \u201cappropriate healthcare partners to determine the level of contribution required from the Town in order to support this initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler!<\/h5>\n

Sign up here<\/u><\/a> to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
\nLocal news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to support local news<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family physicians are struggling to keep up with demand, Dr. Melanie Mar, a family doctor, lead physician for the Algonquin Family Health Team, and co-chair of a physician committee at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":117300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCouncil told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Family physicians are struggling to keep up with demand, Dr. Melanie Mar, a family doctor, lead physician for the Algonquin Family Health Team, and co-chair of a physician committee at [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doppler Online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Hville_Doppler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doppler Online\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Doppler Online\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938\"},\"headline\":\"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\"},\"wordCount\":422,\"commentCount\":12,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\",\"name\":\"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg\",\"width\":730,\"height\":421,\"caption\":\"Dr. Melanie Mar speaks to council remotely about the primary care health care crisis facing the community.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"description\":\"Read Local\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Huntsville Doppler\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg\",\"width\":760,\"height\":212,\"caption\":\"Huntsville Doppler\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938\",\"name\":\"Doppler Online\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/doppler-online\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler","og_description":"Family physicians are struggling to keep up with demand, Dr. Melanie Mar, a family doctor, lead physician for the Algonquin Family Health Team, and co-chair of a physician committee at [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/","og_site_name":"Huntsville Doppler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","article_published_time":"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":730,"height":421,"url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Doppler Online","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_site":"@Hville_Doppler","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Doppler Online","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/"},"author":{"name":"Doppler Online","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938"},"headline":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing","datePublished":"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/"},"wordCount":422,"commentCount":12,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/","name":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing - Huntsville Doppler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-27T13:17:24+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-27T13:54:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2022\/07\/p8mrVZT2-Melanie-Mar.jpg","width":730,"height":421,"caption":"Dr. Melanie Mar speaks to council remotely about the primary care health care crisis facing the community."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/there-are-about-1700-people-without-a-family-doctor-in-huntsville-and-that-number-is-growing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Council told there are about 1,700 people without a family doctor in Huntsville and that number is growing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#website","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","name":"Huntsville Doppler","description":"Read Local","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#organization","name":"Huntsville Doppler","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media-doppleronline-ca.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com\/2025\/03\/logo-Canadian-1.jpg","width":760,"height":212,"caption":"Huntsville Doppler"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HuntsvilleDoppler\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Hville_Doppler","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/huntsville_doppler\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/#\/schema\/person\/3e6b0695dcb78273e5a4854699a12938","name":"Doppler Online","url":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/author\/doppler-online\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}