How one Ontario woman’s cancer diagnoses slipped through the cracks without a family doctor

As she battles stage three cancer, Kittana Ruels, 45, can’t help wondering if things would have done differently if she had a family doctor.

As she battles stage three cancer, Kittana Ruels, 45, can’t help wondering if things would have done differently if she had a family doctor.

Ruels, who previously battled breast cancer in 2018, gets a yearly scan but says getting tested was more challenging when she lost her family doctor after moving to North Bay from Mississauga during the pandemic.

Unable to find a new one and facing a five to 10 year waitlist, Ruels went to a walk-in clinic to schedule her yearly mammogram. The clinic, run by a nurse practitioner, video conferences doctors in to see patients.

“We don’t have health care here; it’s very short-staffed, and everybody’s struggling,” Ruels says.

She says the doctor pushed back at first, scheduling only one once she told them about her history of cancer.

The scan, which should have happened in May 2022, happened in September 2022.

“Never heard back from anyone. So to me, like most people, you think, ‘Oh, no, news is good news. I must be fine. I’ll wait till next year,’” Ruels says.

“But then in June (2023), I felt a lump.”