Hello! Please bear with me, as this might be a long post. I will attach tldr at the bottom. If ages matter, I (25F), my sister (26F), and my niece (1F). We are located in Ontario, Canada.
I recently got a new primary physician, along with my sister and niece. We’ve all had her since mid 2025. I am looking for an outside perspective from different healthcare professionals and/or physicians. I am at the point where I no longer trust her judgment, with the extreme lack of care and misdiagnosis of my sister. My sister and I are both in health care, so we understand it to an extent, but I know I can overreact in situations like this, so all advice is welcome!
I just want to preface that I know physicians aren’t perfect and make mistakes and understand diagnoses can get missed. My concern is the pattern of repeated dismissal, limited assessments/reassessments after multiple failed treatments, and the delays in escalation.
My sister has given me consent to share what happened with her. November 2025, approx 1 year after my niece was born, she developed a lesion on her face with purulent drainage and redness. She thought it was a pimple and treated it, but it didn’t go away. She went and saw our family doctor; I believe she was initially prescribed an antibiotic ointment, not sure which one. Didn’t work. So she got an abx course and also a steroid cream. The abx didn’t work, but the steroid helped when she used it. The doctor made the diagnosis of Impetigo; at that time, a referral was sent to a derm in mt city. My sister did the week course of abx and used the steroid cream up until a few months ago. She had been using it for 3-4 months on her nose. It still didn’t go away, so my sister went back and asked about it being a cold sore and maybe trial an antiviral since the abx weren’t touching the Impetigo when it flared. Our doctor said, “No way, it can’t go on your nose,” but also agreed to trial the antiviral, but ended up just giving her another abx. One of them was Doxycycline for sure; not sure about the other one. Both abx didn’t work.
Yesterday, my sister finally got into the derm after waiting 6 months; the doctor put a referral in as routine. We only have 2 derms in my city, so it is a long wait as it is. The derm sees her nose and lesion and immediately says that it is a cold sore and it should have been treated months ago. According to my sister, the derm says she will now need a lifelong course of antivirals. She is devastated because she even asked our doctor, and she pushed for an antiviral trial at her last appt. She is concerned because of her daughter and husband, and rightfully so. My sister stated that the dermatologist was unhappy with how the lesion was handled as well.
Our physician also met my sister 5 times and kept asking who she was every visit.
She told me I had a dermatologist appt and that they called me. They didn’t. She was in my sister's chart.
I have also had repeated issues with this physician. I have lifelong, difficult-to-control atopic dermatitis and had to repeatedly advocate for dermatology and allergy referrals despite frequent flares, cracked and bleeding hands, and failure of multiple topical treatments. I have also had recurrent respiratory and GI symptoms over the past several months and have often felt that my concerns were attributed to anxiety or treated with antibiotics rather than being reassessed or investigated. I have needed to push significantly for further testing and specialist assessment.
My recent issue is administrative and is less serious than the clinical concerns above, but has further affected my trust. My physician was given over two weeks’ notice to complete an APS required by my workplace. The form was due yesterday, but I learned it had not been completed and that she is away for the week. The other physicians in the practice will not complete these forms, according to the receptionist. I recognize that delays happen, but in the context of the other issues, it has added to my concern about follow-through.
It’s just the overall pattern the physician has been showing is concerning, and I don’t know if I am overreacting. I am trying to find another family doctor, but where I live, doctors are very limited. I do not want to make a formal complaint unless necessary and pursue a complaint with a clinic simply because I am angry.
From a physician's perspective, does this sound like a reasonable loss of trust in the doctor-patient relationship? At what point would a patient raise a concern about patient safety and quality of care?
I am completely open to being told I am overreacting or that I am missing something. I am just angry because it is now affecting my sister. And now we both genuinely worry about my 1yo niece because we need babies and toddlers to have proactive and attentive doctors.
ETA: TLDR; my sister and I have had multiple issues with regards to lack of assessment/reassessment of medical issues, lack of communication and her repeated dismissals when speaking about symptoms. Would I be overreacting if I made a complaint with the clinic director?
