OTTAWA—The country’s military ombudsman has found that National Defence is reluctant to conduct regular health assessments on reservists because over one-third of them have no family doctor — and if they’re sick it would be the department’s responsibility to care for them.

Gary Walbourne’s latest report shows only four of the military’s 18 field ambulance units, which are responsible for part-time soldiers, are conducting exams, and that the vast majority of them are not properly equipped to carry out the job.

He says the detachments are understaffed and often don’t have access to the military’s central medical database.

The report comes at the same time as questions are being raised about the health of Canadian Rangers who patrol the Far North.

Since reservists are part-time members, the general expectation has been that they are to seek care under their provincial health systems, even though the military requires them to be medically fit to deploy at all times.

Walbourne has outlined several areas of concern, including the social-legal liability for so-called “orphan patients” with no family doctor.

“The Canadian Forces health services group’s legal advisers contend that if a reservist requires followup care as a result of an issue discovered during a (periodic health assessment), the DND/CAF must refer them to a family physician,” said the report. “If the member does not have a doctor, the DND/CAF should assist them in finding a physician, or a clinic, which can provide followup care. If a resource cannot be found, then the DND/CAF is responsible for providing care to the member.”

The department recognizes it could be an enormous drain on resources “as (the military’s) clinicians either spend time helping reservists access followup care or take on the care themselves. As such, some health services centres that have difficulties meeting current demand may become overwhelmed.”

Roughly 38 per cent of reserve soldiers report not having a family doctor.

The ombudsman’s office has over the last few years focused on the gaps in both benefits and services for reservists, who are increasingly called upon to fill in on both overseas and domestic missions.

Of the sizable contingent of troops deployed to fight wildfires in Saskatchewan last summer, almost 80 were reservists — and previous research by the ombudsman’s office shows almost three-quarters of the part-time units in the province had not been given periodic health assessments.

Walbourne says not paying attention to the health of reservists has the potential to blow up in the face of military.

“Presumably, any serious injury or death of a reservist sustained during training or a domestic operation will become known in the public domain,” he wrote. “It could potentially have repercussions for the DND/CAF if the reservist was employed without a valid medical assessment, even if it were not attributable to the cause of the catastrophic incident.”

The outgoing Conservative government recognized the plight of injured part-timers and introduced changes last spring to earnings loss benefits, putting them on par with regular members.

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The new Liberal government promised to make the care of soldiers an even bigger priority.

The issue of health care for reservists has been a long-standing concern at National Defence, which as far back as 2011 was grappling with how to get wounded part-timers who fought in Afghanistan into the military health system.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press in 2013 showed there was no mechanism for the troops to get help after their contracts had expired and that reserve unit “commanders were not being made aware whether their soldiers were receiving care,” particularly for mental health issues such as post traumatic stress disorder.

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