An individual who is waiting for a family doctor or nurse practitioner on PEI’s Provincial Patient Registry contacted our office to complain that they believed the registry was being misused or ignored by practitioners.
The individual had reason to believe that medical practitioners in their community were taking on patients who had not been on the registry for as long as others in the same community. Because of this, they felt that the registry was not being administered fairly.
We contacted Health PEI and asked about how the Provincial Patient Registry worked for patients and how it was determined who would be placed with a practitioner. We learned that when practitioners decide to engage with the registry for new patients, individuals are selected chronologically based on their location and the length of time they have been on the registry.
Our office also learned that there is no requirement for practitioners on PEI to engage with the registry when taking on new patients. Individuals on the registry will only be assigned if a practitioner in their specified area asks for patients from Health PEI’s registry.
Like Health PEI, OmbudsPEI appreciates that practitioners have the right to decide who they will take on as new patients. To ensure that Islanders are aware of how practitioners interact with the patient registry, we suggested a change to the information provided on Health PEI’s registry website. This change offers a better explanation about how the list is used by Island practitioners. Health PEI accepted the suggested changes and updated the information on their website promptly, which satisfied our concerns about public transparency of the Patient Registry program.