{"id":856023,"date":"2025-06-16T19:12:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T00:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/16\/seeking-a-physician-96-and-doctorless-n-s-senior-turns-to-the-classifieds\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T19:12:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T00:12:48","slug":"seeking-a-physician-96-and-doctorless-n-s-senior-turns-to-the-classifieds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/16\/seeking-a-physician-96-and-doctorless-n-s-senior-turns-to-the-classifieds\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Seeking a Physician’: 96 and doctorless, N.S. senior turns to the classifieds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Nova Scotia<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Dorothy Lamont, 96, lives independently in her downtown Dartmouth home, still growing her own vegetables in her backyard every summer. But her biggest worry is not having a family doctor.<\/p>\n

Dorothy Lamont is one of more than 90K Nova Scotians looking for a doctor<\/h2>\n
\n
\n

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

\n

Nicola Seguin<\/a><\/span> \u00b7 <\/span>CBC News<\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span>

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Woman, 96, puts ad in newspaper to find family doctor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dorothy Lamont, like more than 90,000 Nova Scotians, doesn’t have a family physician. Having been without one for three years, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Nicola Seguin has the story.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The unusual advertisement in the Friday morning newspaper caught the eyes of many Nova Scotians. It tells the story of a 96-year-old woman who is “of sound mind and body” for her age, and who doesn’t want to be “a burden to the healthcare system.”<\/p>\n

Her biggest concern? She doesn’t have a family doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am apparently somewhere in the 80,000’s in the physician waiting list, and so time is increasingly of the essence,” the ad reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dorothy Lamont wrote that\u00a0ad, using the title\u00a0“Seeking a Physician” \u2014 a last-ditch effort to take matters into her own hands after three years without a family doctor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I really didn’t know what else to do,” Lamont told CBC News in an interview at\u00a0her home in downtown Dartmouth, N.S. “I should have a doctor. You know, at 96 years old, there’s sure to be problems. But I have no one to turn to.”<\/p>\n

Lamont said in the past nine years, she has had five doctors, all of whom\u00a0retired or left the city. This has left her with a virtual doctor that she says just isn’t cutting it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “And I’m sure there are many other seniors in the same situation as I am.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"A<\/p>

Dorothy Lamont and her son crafted this advertisement as a last-ditch effort to find a family doctor. (Submitted by Stewart Lamont)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Though Lamont’s tactic of advertising for a doctor is unique, her story isn’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An estimated 6.5 million Canadians<\/a> don’t have a family doctor. According to a recent Health Canada report<\/a>, Canada needs nearly 23,000 additional family physicians to address the shortage.<\/p>\n

In Nova Scotia, Premier Tim Houston has campaigned on fixing health care and is aiming to slash the list of people waiting for a family doctor or nurse practitioner.\u00a0The list has been shrinking, after it\u00a0reached a peak of about 160,000<\/u><\/a>\u00a0last June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, 91,474 people\u00a0\u2014 or about 8.6 per cent of the province’s population \u2014 were on the Need a Family Practice Registry as of May 1.<\/p>\n

“I think for all folks that are dealing with complex health concerns or for the average person in Nova Scotia, we want to connect as many people as possible as quickly as possible to care,” Bethany McCormick, Nova Scotia Health’s\u00a0vice-president\u00a0of operations for the northern zone, said in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n