London doctor whose poster drew huge line: We’re not taking on new patients

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Call it a miscommunication.  

A London family health team was caught off guard by scores of people seeking a family doctor on Saturday after a single poster at the clinic took on a life of its own online.  

More than 100 people braved the cold and snow on Saturday morning at Grow Family Health for a shot of a family doctor, a sign of just how in-demand primary care is in the city, the clinic’s lead said.  

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“Our front desk staff called me to say they got in at 8:20 a.m. and there was a line-up around the corner. It was completely unexpected,” said Dr. Brenna Kaschor, Grow Family Health’s founder and owner. 

“Our parking lot, the parking lots of all the adjacent businesses were full. . . . People are very, very desperate for a family doctor.” 

The poster, hung on the clinic door Feb. 24, was intended to reach patients the clinic had seen in the past but couldn’t take on at the time, offering them one of the limited spots on the office’s roster, Kaschor said.

Instead, it circulated online and attracted a significant crowd, including parents with little children, who lined up in biting cold starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.  

“We brought them in and snaked them around a space in our building,” Kaschor said. “Everybody was so kind and understanding.” 

Though the clinic was not accepting new patients from the broader community, it handed out tickets and application packages to the people who were waiting on Saturday, Kaschor said. They can return to the office with the complete paperwork and ticket to get on the roster, Kaschor said.  

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“We’re trying to get the word out that we’re not accepting new patients on March 8,” she said. “We know a lot of people need a family doctor, but we need to get the people we’ve already connected with taken care of first.” 

The office was launched in 2021 as the Grounded Roots, Open Wings (GROW) Clinic. It was intended to support unattached families who had barriers to accessing primary care, Kaschor said. It offered a broad range of support services and care to these higher-needs patients, she said

It partnered with a family health team in October 2024.

“We’d been trying since October to get in touch with all the people we’d seen previously to see if they still needed a family doctor,” Kaschor said. “And if they didn’t, try and get them on our roster along with the complex patients we’ve been caring for.” 

They set March 1 and March 8 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. for these previous patients to come in and get registered, but it drew in a much broader crowd.

Grow Family Health does have room for two additional family doctors to join the practice, Kaschor said. A pharmacy is opening in the same space to help support patients, she said. 

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The clinic is looking for partnerships with other community organizations to help it expand and serve patients, Kaschor said.   

“Primary care is something people are starting to become worried about,” she said. “If there’s anyone who is looking for a way to contribute to health care in the community, we’re here.”

More than 2.5 million Ontarians are without a family doctor, a number expected to increase to 4.4 million by 2026, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) estimates.

As of 2022, London was short approximately 56 family doctors, according to the OMA, and had 71,000 unattached patients.

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