Stephen Wills knows he is a fortunate veteran: he has a family doctor.
Wills served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 23 years and travelled the world. He also developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder from investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
Wills retired in 1999 and, unlike many veterans, had a family doctor upon his release. But after that doctor retired, it took Wills several years to find his current doctor.
“It’s a scary situation when you need ongoing psychiatric help and you don’t have a doctor,” Wills said.
Finding a family doctor after leaving the military is one of the biggest challenges Canada’s veterans face. Retired colonel Niskika Jardine, Canada’s veterans ombuds, says it is the most common concern she hears from veterans across the country.
But data on the issue is scarce. Veteran Affairs Canada, the agency responsible for supporting veterans and their families, does not track how many veterans are without a family doctor.
‘Disheartening’
Veterans are not alone in their struggle to find a family doctor.
Nearly six million Canadians do not have a family doctor, Canadian Affairs reported last week. Acute physician shortages are one of the reasons Canada performs relatively poorly in international rankings of the world’s top health-care systems.
In 2023, 5.4 million Canadian adults did not have a family doctor, a report from the Canadian Institutes of Health Information says.
Members of the Forces are shielded from the challenge of finding a family physician so long as they are in the military, as Ottawa provides health care for active members.
But once members leave, they — like civilians — must secure family doctors through provincial health-care systems, where waitlists are common.
“Very rarely is the pathway to finding primary care a simple one for anyone releasing from the military,” said Tamara Kleinschmidt, executive director of the Trenton Military Family Resource Centre. The organization, which supports military families serving at the military base in Trenton, Ont., recently hired a health-care navigator to help military families find doctors.
Veterans Affairs Canada does provide financial benefits for veterans with service-related injuries. But to qualify for these benefits, veterans need a family doctor to fill out their paperwork or to refer them to specialists for a diagnosis.
“Without a family doctor, it’s a barrier to getting the benefits that have been put in place, because [veterans] may not be able to put a disability claim through,” said Jardine. As Canada’s veterans ombuds, her job is to make sure veterans are treated properly by Veterans Affairs Canada. This can include reviewing complaints about the benefits veterans receive through the department.
Jardine says she has heard “disheartening” stories about doctors dropping veterans as patients because of the paperwork they needed to fill out for Veterans Affairs Canada.
Veterans Affairs Canada has long provided veterans who are medically discharged and their families with free virtual health services through the Veteran Family Telemedicine Service for one year after their release.
“This service works in tandem with, rather than replacing, essential provincial health care systems,” Veteran Affairs Canada told Canadian Affairs in an email.
Eligibility for the service has expanded recently.
As of Feb. 9, all veterans released after April 1, 2025 can register for the service. Their families and survivors can also register. Everyone who is currently enrolled in the program will have their coverage in the program extended for another year.
‘Sacred obligation’
Some advocates say veterans who receive federal benefits for service-related injuries should be in a priority position on provincial waitlists for doctors.
“Provinces should accept their sacred obligation [to veterans] and create legislation that, if you’re a client of Veterans Affairs Canada, you go to the top of the list,” said Mike Blais, founder of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, an advocacy organization.
Blais has had a doctor most of the time since he was released from the military. But most veterans he meets struggle to find a doctor, he says. And given the lack of family doctors across Canada, there is little he can do to help them. That’s why he wants provinces to prioritize veterans getting access to a family doctor.
Not everyone agrees with this proposed approach.
“I don’t think that I’m any specialer than anybody else,” said Rick Rickard, who retired from the military in 2021 after nearly 38 years in non-combat roles.
Rickard lost one of his legs in a work accident in 1988, a few years after he joined the military. He has a prosthetic and says Veterans Affairs Canada has always treated him well. He gets a new prosthetic every few years, and when he retired, veterans affairs paid for his home to be made accessible.
It also pays for his yard work and a nutrition plan that enables him to have home-cooked meals delivered a few times a week.
“I feel like I get extremely good care from veterans affairs,” he said.
Rickard, who grew up in a New Brunswick farming community, knows people who lost limbs while working on farms. He does not think he should get enhanced treatment just because he was working for the military when he lost his leg.
“You have to be proactive in your own healing, the same as you would within anything else.”
Kleinschmidt at the Trenton Military Family Resource Centre says there is merit to the idea of provincial health-care systems prioritizing veterans, especially those with injuries from their service.
But it might be hard to implement, she says.
“You have to be careful what you wish for,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s a way, from a policy perspective, to [apply] this consistently and not create barriers for other parts of the community.”
The Trenton resource centre has met with local health-care providers to explain the difficulties veterans and military families face when finding health care. This has helped veterans and military families find health-care providers, says Kleinschmidt.
From his home in Rockland, just outside of Ottawa, Stephen Wills is grateful he has a doctor to help him figure out the medications that work best for him. Wills volunteers with Canadian Veterans Advocacy and has heard from thousands of veterans who are struggling to find a doctor and get their benefits.
“I honestly don’t think that there is a special solution for veterans beyond the Canadian health-care system training more doctors,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re special in that manner, and I think we have the same problems.”
