ST..JOHNS (CBC) - A Gander man who lost out in a controversial central Newfoundland patient registry says it's unacceptable that he and others have to seek routine prescriptions from emergency room physicians.

Paul Gaenge was one of about 4,000 people who entered their names for a lottery held earlier this month by the Gander Medical Clinic, following the hiring of two new general practitioners.

Because so many people in the area have not had a primary care physician, the clinic determined the fairest way to respond to its waiting list was a lottery - a move that attracted national headlines.

Gaenge's name was not on the list of 2,000 patients who "won" in the lottery.

"I think that everybody deserves good health care and to be put on a list or to have no doctor at all is ridiculous," he said.

Gaenge has not had a family doctor of his own for more than two years, which has posed problems for even the most simple medical treatments.

"I don't know how long it's going to be now, until I actually have my own doctor," he said.

"It's hard, and to go to [the] emergency ward just for small things - I mean, the doctors down there look at you like, 'Why are you wasting my time just getting prescriptions filled when we got more important people that need it?' "

Gaenge's girlfriend enrolled herself and her two children in the lottery, but also lost. She doesn't drive, so they have been hitching 50-kilometre rides back and forth from Gambo to see a physician there.

The clinic, meanwhile, said the new doctors intend to add another 500 patients each over the next six months. Even so, that will still mean at least 1,000 people in the area do not have a family physician.

LIKE IT?  LET OTHERS KNOW