Patients' perceptions on losing access to FPs: qualitative study

To examine the health care-related experiences of individuals who have lost their FPs.

A qualitative design using phenomenology.

Southwestern Ontario.

Eighteen participants (9 women and 9 men, with a mean age of 48.9 years) from urban or rural areas who had lost their FPs.

Semistructured interviews were conducted, which were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. An iterative approach using immersion and crystallization was employed for analysis.

Participants reported having lost their FPs because of reasons specific to their physicians (eg, illness, retirement, career change) or system issues (eg, poor remuneration for FPs, cutbacks in health care leading to physician emigration). Participants described feelings of loss, abandonment, frustration, and anger related to losing their physicians. They expressed concerns about the difficulty of getting prescription medications, lack of continuity of care related to medical records, and preventive care. They faced considerable hurdles in accessing primary health care, turning to walk-in clinics and emergency departments despite concerns about quality and fragmentation of care. Some of those with chronic medical conditions prevailed upon specialists to help meet primary health care needs.

Losing access to FPs evoked a variety of strong feelings among these participants. They engaged in a number of strategies to meet their primary care needs but not without reservations. In a health care system appropriately built on primary health care, the lack of access to FPs is regarded as the loss of a basic right to care.