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My job as a family physician in small-town British Columbia is a dream come true. It’s also nearly impossible to do. I work in a small town in British Columbia, the same town where I was born and grew up, where my dad was born, and where my mom’s dad was born, in a tent, before his family’s homesteader cabin was built almost a century ago. I applied to medical school after becoming interested in Médecins sans Frontières but I quickly realized tha…

Family medicine is the front door of the health-care system. But for too many people in Canada, that front door is now closed. Results from the OurCare national survey estimate that more than one in five Canadian adults – 6.5 million people – do not have a family physician (FP) or nurse practitioner (NP) they can see regularly for care, a situation that has become worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary care – the type of care provided by fam…

…e, but it was a pursuit of meaningful engagement that drew me to family medicine. I love getting to know my patients and following their stories. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing a patient recover from an illness or watching a baby I delivered grow up healthy. It’s a unique kind of bond that comes from treating someone over the years, seeing them through different stages of life. When I finished my residency, I worked locums (“subs…

…estine Esume In the different countries where I have practiced, family physicians do a lot to help their patients. We are the first point of contact, we know our patients’ histories and we provide continuity of care. If you take family doctors out of the system, healthcare collapses. That’s true in Canada, too. Family doctors build trust and connection with their patients. In Nigeria, the UK, and now in Canada, I’ve seen how people confide in thei…

Dr. Tobias Gelber comes from a long line of physicians—three of my four grandparents were physicians, and my extended family includes at least 20 physicians. My paternal grandmother, a family doctor in our community, inspired me the most. Today, I work shifts in the same Grand Forks emergency department where she once practiced. Life as a rural doctor Living and working in a rural community means I can walk to my clinic, run into my patients at t…

…a doctor. In fact, I wouldn’t have been voted “most likely to become a physician” in my graduating class. I had my fair share of adventures and missteps, and medicine wasn’t on my radar at all. But life has a way of leading us in unexpected directions. Everything changed when I spent time in Madagascar as a missionary. I saw firsthand how difficult it was for people to access even the most basic healthcare. I prayed for guidance, asking what I sho…