Denied – a Canadian physician only takes patients younger than 55:

In these days of acute doctor shortages, it takes a lot more to get on a physician’s list than being first in line when a practice opens its doors.

At age 59, Edith Paulus knows she’s not as young as she used to be, but when she responded to a general practitioner’s ad for new patients in the local paper she never imagined she would be told she’s too old to be accepted.

After a two-year quest to find a family doctor in Barrie, which the health ministry has designated as under-serviced for family physicians, Paulus answered Dr. Derek Nesdoly’s ad and called his office in Midhurst, just west of Barrie, only to be told he wasn’t taking patients older than 55.