Ontario’s health-care crisis is worsening, as the number of residents without a family doctor grows significantly while hundreds of thousands are forced to travel long distances to receive care, a new report shows.
The
study by Upstream Lab at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital shows an estimated 670,000 Ontarians living at least 51 kilometres from their family doctor. Within that group, more than 130,000 live more than 200 kilometres away, equivalent to the distance between Toronto and places such as Parry Sound, Belleville, or London.
“It’s too far and it’s impacting how Ontarians receive care because they are not seeing their family doctor—or any family doctor—as often as patients who live closer,”
Dr. Archna Gupta, a Toronto family physician and the study’s principal researcher, said in a July 11
press release from the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP).
“Our data shows that without a family doctor nearby, patients may need to rely on hospital emergency departments more frequently and do not get screened for cancer as often.”
The OCFP raised alarms about the rapid increase in the number of Ontarians without a family doctor—2.5 million, up from 1.8 million in 2020. In a six-month period alone, over 160,000 people joined the ranks of those without a doctor, the association said.
“Every Ontarian deserves a family doctor, and patients should be able to find one in their community,” OCFP president Dr. Mekalai Kumanan said in the press release. “System-wide issues are stretching family doctors far beyond capacity. We need to address the pressing issues facing family doctors today.”
The OCFP called for urgent government support to ensure family doctors can provide Ontarians with needed care, noting that having a regular family physician reduces mortality, decreases hospitalizations, and lowers health-care costs.
“While some progress has been made by the Ontario government, including investments in teams to support family doctors, and a commitment to cut the unnecessary paperwork family doctors face, more change to support time with patients is needed,” OCFP CEO Deepy Sur said. “Ontario can implement changes with urgency so the impacts can be felt by family doctors and patients right away.”
OCFP said one solution to the crisis is drastically reducing doctors’ paperwork burden, which takes up to 19 hours a week. Many doctors are leaving the profession due to compensation that hasn’t kept pace with inflation and increasingly complex patient needs.
Labour shortages have plagued Canada’s health-care system. In 2022, there were just 96,000 physicians in the country,
according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, or roughly 247 medical doctors per 100,000 population.
A
2022 national survey by St. Michael’s researchers found that about 6.5 million people, roughly one in five Canadians, lack access to primary care.
On July 11, the federal government
announced $47 million to support and retain members of the health workforce. Most of the money will go toward improving health workforce data collection and access across Canada: $22.5 million is designated for Health Workforce Canada, a new independent organization funded by Health Canada to identify workforce gaps; and $13 million will go to the Medical Council of Canada to expand a national physician database.
