How Ottawa's family doctor matchmaker is giving families hope

Tracey Zoobkoff, the integrated care co-ordinator at the Queensway Carleton Hospital, back left, poses with a family that now has a family doctor, left to right: Elian Aguilar Jimenez, Diana Patricia Jimenez Lopez, baby Harjass Kaur Jimenez and Manpreet Singh. Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIA

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Bringing home a newborn baby comes with uncertainties.

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For Diana Jimenez and Manpreet Singh, finding a doctor for their daughter wasn’t one of them.

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Before Harjass Kaur Jimenez was born at Queensway Carleton Hospital, her family had already been matched with a family doctor through its Newborn Primary Care Attachment Initiative. Available only to families delivering at Queensway Carleton Hospital and Almonte General Hospital, the program was created to help newborns find primary care, but is increasingly connecting parents with physicians alongside their babies.

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The match ended the family’s two-year search for primary care and connected them with a doctor close to home.

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“It means a lot because, for the last two years, we didn’t have a doctor,” Singh said. “With this help, we have a family doctor now. It’s really wonderful.”

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Jimenez said she had relied on walk-in clinics for years and it was often hard to have consistency with doctors.

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“It was so complicated to find a space for a doctor,” she said. “Now everything will be easier for us.”

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The Ottawa West Four Rivers Ontario Health Team has extended funding for the initiative until March 31, 2027, allowing it to continue matching families with family physicians and nurse practitioners even while its long-term future remains uncertain.

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The initiative comes as Ontario continues to face a family doctor shortage. The Ontario Medical Association estimates more than 2.5 million people in the province do not have family doctors, while more than half of family doctors surveyed said they were considering retirement within the next five years.

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Since launching in January, the Newborn Primary Care Attachment Initiative has connected 445 patients to ongoing primary care. It has also built a network of more than 85 clinics and more than 65 family doctors and nurse practitioners willing to accept new patients.

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For Tracey Zoobkoff, the nurse care co-ordinator behind the initiative, those numbers tell only part of the story.

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What has surprised her most is how often a call about a newborn leads to care for an entire family.

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“My goal was simply to find primary care for every newborn leaving Queensway Carleton or Almonte General Hospital without a provider,” Zoobkoff said. “The fact that physicians are now rostering mothers, fathers and sometimes siblings has gone beyond my wildest dreams.”

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She has seen the same pattern repeat dozens of times.

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“They’ll ask me, ‘Does mom have a provider?’ Then they’ll ask, ‘What about dad?'” she said. “They say, ‘We might as well keep the family together.'”

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Zoobkoff laughed when asked if finding the right doctor was a bit like using a dating app.

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“Yes, exactly,” she said.

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The comparison isn’t far off. Before making a match, she considers where a family lives, whether they have access to a car, whether language or cultural considerations matter and which clinics are accepting patients.

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The goal isn’t simply to find a family doctor, but to find one that’s a good long-term fit.