Hundreds Line Up for Chance to Get a Family Doctor in Ontario Town

Medical tools are pictured in an examination room at a health clinic in Calgary, on July 14, 2023. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Hundreds of residents in Bruce County, Ontario, lined up on Jan. 15 for the opportunity to get on the list for a new doctor starting a practice in the community.

More than a thousand people lined up at the Royal Canadian Legion in Walkerton to get on the patient list for Dr. Mitchell Currie, according to media reports.

Currie has just moved to the area, about 180 km west of Toronto, and will be working as part of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre team, according to a post on the centre’s website.

The centre said Currie, who grew up in the area, has moved back and will be opening a family practice. His wife, who is also a doctor, is expected to open a clinic too.

“I am very excited to finally be back in the community after being away for the better part of eight years,” Currie said. “I look forward to helping with the current physician shortage in the Brockton area.”

He said his wife was expected to open her family practice “in the near future.”

The patient sign-up event was for those living in Brockton and the surrounding area and ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Five hundred of those who lined up were put on the new patient list.

The sign-up line-up highlights the doctor shortage problem that the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) says could become worse. There are more than 2.5 million Ontarians without a family doctor, about 20 percent of the Ontario population, according to the OMA.

That number is expected to increase to 25 percent by 2026, leaving 3.4 million people without a physician, the OMA said.

There are an estimated 2.8 doctors for every 1,000 people living in the province, according to the OMA, and 40 percent of those are thinking of retiring. The number jumps to 50 percent for Northern Ontario physicians.

“Ontario’s health-care system is in crisis,” OMA president Dr. Dominik Nowak, said in October.

“Chronic underfunding has put the future of Ontario health care in jeopardy. This is why doctors are putting forth solutions that the government must enact immediately to tackle our most severe challenges,” he said.

A survey conducted by Ipsos for the OMA found that 89 percent of Ontario residents are concerned about the future of the health-care system.

Another 78 percent say it is difficult to get the health-care services they need because they don’t have a family doctor.

Provincial Efforts

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has promised more doctors for rural and northern parts of the province.

The Practice Ready Ontario program, announced in 2023, is expected to see 100 foreign-trained doctors licensed this year, with the goal of helping 120,000 people access a family physician.

The province has also committed $88 million over a three-year period to cover grants for undergraduate students who agree to practise family medicine with a full roster of patients once they graduate. The program is expected to cover tuition and other educational costs like books, supplies, and equipment for 1,360 students.

Ontario has opened two new medical schools, and one university has also added more seats for medical students, according to a Dec. 4, 2024, news release.

In October 2024, the province appointed Dr. Jane Philpott to lead the government’s primary care action team. The former federal health minister was given a mandate to connect every person in Ontario with primary care within five years.