Wheatley residents waiting for province to solve doctor dilemma

By Mark Ribble

As the calendar turns to the one-year anniversary of the Wheatley explosion, that same calendar turns from summer to fall with the impending retirement of Wheatley’s only remaining physician, Dr. David Eaton.

Dr. Eaton’s departure at the end of this year will leave 1,400 Wheatley-area patients without a hometown doctor for the first time.

Dr. Eaton practices as part of the Thamesview Family Health Team (TVFHT) and has been the primary care practitioner in Wheatley for 47 years.

About three years ago, an application was made to the Ministry of Health to begin the process of getting a replacement or at least funding for a nurse practitioner in the Wheatley office.

Apparently, that application has not yet made its way to the Minister of Health. In fact, they are now faced with starting over as the original application has expired.

According to Wheatley pharmacist Mike Untch, the process was started in January 2020 when he was able to meet with officials from TVFHT and get the application process started.

Another meeting to further discuss the issue was scheduled for March 2020, but the COVID pandemic put an abrupt pause to that.

“COVID put everything on hold,” said Untch in an interview with the Sun last week. “Then we had an explosion. Now we’re on hold but hope to meet with the TVFHT soon and get things rolling again.”

Except now, there is more of an urgency as Dr. Eaton has indicated he will be done with his practice as of December 31, 2022.

Untch is part of the Wheatley Task Force which was formed in the wake of the explosion last year and says that the group has been working toward a solution, which includes meeting with provincial officials and talking to everyone they can about what they think is an unfair distribution of medical personnel.

“Tilbury has seven doctors and two nurse practitioners, with about 1,800 more people than Wheatley,” he said. “Wheatley will have no doctors or nurse practitioners at the end of this year. How is that fair?”

The Task Force has been pushing for some action on the previous application, which is a complex document, several pages in length.

They’ve met with Chatham-Kent Leamington MPP Trevor Jones, who has taken the issue to Toronto.

At Dr. Eaton’s office, Nancy Plumb is a longtime physician’s assistant of Dr. Eaton and she says it’s imperative that Wheatley gets some relief on this issue.

“As patients come in, we continue to tell them that the doctor is retiring at the end of the year and they need to find a doctor,” said Nancy. “Many of them leave in tears, frustrated.”

She explained that many of the 1,400 patients are elderly and have been doctoring here for much of their lives and will have trouble adjusting to going out of town for appointments.

“A lot of our cases can’t be handled by a walk-in clinic,” she says.

She also pointed out that Dr. Eaton does a lot of work with The Meadows of Wheatley retirement community and those people rely on his office to answer questions and offer much-needed treatment on a regular basis.

Nancy believes that Wheatley just doesn’t appear on the radar of most people in the decision-making process and that has to change.

“Back when we had our own council, we got things done,” she says. “Now, we’re just a small pea in a very large pod. No one is going to bat for us.”

DR. DAVID EATON

As for Dr. Eaton himself, he says the time has come for him to step aside, but he’s not without worry about his patients and community.

“I have been a doctor in Wheatley for over 45 years and my patients are my priority,” he said. “I have postponed my retirement over the last several years because I am very concerned that many of my patients in Wheatley will be left without a family doctor when I retire.”

“However, I cannot delay my retirement any longer as we anxiously await answers,” he adds. “This is a very serious situation.”

The hope is that enough attention can be brought to Wheatley’s plight that the application process can be expedited and get things in place for January, either with a new physician or a nurse practitioner.

It’s a tall order, but Nancy Plumb says they are ready.

“If we get the green light, we can be ready quickly,” she said.