Tens of thousands of names remain on P.E.I. patient registry, despite promise to eliminate it by April

Despite a campaign promise made by former premier Dennis King in 2023, the Progressive Conservatives have not fulfilled their goal of eliminating Prince Edward Island's patient registry waitlist by April 2025.

The waitlist has actually grown since the pledge was made, with about 10,000 more Islanders now waiting to be affiliated with a primary care provider.

The total number of people on the registry sits at 37,431 as of the end of March, according to Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser. 

Melody Garnhum, who has been waiting to get a family doctor since 2012, said it's hard to hold out hope — but she's trying. 

Garnhum put her name on the list when she moved from Ontario back to her home province of P.E.I. more than a decade ago. 

She said she had a nurse practitioner when she first joined the registry, but in 2020 she felt she needed a physician because of her complex medical needs. Now, she has no health-care provider at all. 

"I thought: OK, I'll come back to P.E.I. with my young family… I'll just call up one of the good old doctors here — or the one we had when I left — and just say, 'Hey, we moved back,' and we'll be fine," Garnhum said. 

"13 years on the waitlist… I made the most disastrous choice for my health." 

Waiting more than a decade for a primary care physician is not acceptable, said Fraser. 

"Primary care is fundamental to health care," she said in an interview with CBC News.

"The best health-care systems have solid primary care, and that should be our focus." 

Fraser said the promise made by the PCs was probably overly ambitious given the growth of the Island's population and the decline in health staffing. 

But the work that's been done since then has been having an effect, she said. 

In March, 837 people signed up for the patient registry, while 911 were affiliated with health providers.