Kitchener refugee clinic over capacity, turning patients away and worried for the future

The director of a Kitchener, Ont., health care clinic for refugees says he's worried newcomers making their way to Waterloo region won't be able to get the health care they need as the clinic is now turning new patients away as a result of capacity issues.

Dr. Neil Arya, the director of the Centre for Family Medicine Refugee Health Clinic, said for the first time since its inception in 2008, the clinic stopped accepting new patients three months ago — with the exception of emergency cases. 

"You can only stretch so far before things break," Arya told CBC News.

The clinic is designed to temporarily support government-assisted refugees through Reception House in the first few months of their arrival before being connected to local family doctors. 

However, Arya said patients are now with his clinic much longer — upwards of two years. Usually, the clinic has a roster of about 200 patients, but now it's serving more than 400.

Arya said many doctors were unable to take new patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been more refugees because of the crisis situation in Afghanistan and Ukraine and people are showing up with "higher than average needs."

Arya said Reception House has had to bypass the clinic and turn directly to family doctors. But that can't continue for much longer as hundreds more refugees are expected to make their way to the region before the end of the year.

"That system, I anticipate, is going to be breaking down very shortly because of the increased numbers that they'll have and the practitioners whom they've found are very quickly going to fill up," said Arya.

A spokesperson for Reception House told CBC News they're expecting 750 refugees for resettlement in 2022. So far, the organization has supported about 375 people and expects hundreds more in the fall.

"We are also noticing an increased number of [government assisted refugees] relocating from other parts of Ontario and Canada into our region," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Arya worries this will leave newcomers with few options.

"The only choice that they're going to have is to wait on the illness and have that perhaps be declared later when things are more serious or send people to emergency," he said.

"We already know that the emergency rooms are already stretched … So it's just going to cascade in a system that's already stressed," he added.

Arya said this comes as the clinic faces service cuts.