Proper treatment can stop the spread of these diseases, but without enough local doctors to meet the need, patients are going without necessary medical care for months on end.
The waiting period hurts. It’s always in the back of your mind. It puts a hold on where your life is at.“I had to go all the way to Prince Albert just to see a Hep C doctor,” Paul said. “There should be one here, for people in the Battlefords and the area.”Article content “That’s the thing with a lot of people; they don’t know their status,” Paul said. “And I know for a fact that if there was a steady doctor here at the RAAM, more of them would say ‘OK, let’s go get tested.’Advertisement 5Cymric Leask is the HIV project coordinator in the Battlefords.Cymric Leask, HIV project coordinator in the Battlefords, said this has been an ongoing problem. When rates of HIV and hepatitis in the area started climbing, access to treatment lagged behind and never caught up.
Leask said the community has a hard time getting doctors of all sorts to work in the area — but communicable disease doctors, who could treat patients like Paul, are in particularly short supply.Article content