TORONTO – The Ontario College of Family Physicians says there are now 2.5 million people in the province who don’t have a family doctor.
The college says that’s an increase of more than 160,000 people since the last count was released six months ago.
A separate study also shows that another 670,000 people in Ontario have a family doctor but need to travel more than 50 kilometres to see them.
The college’s CEO Deepy Sur acknowledges the provincial government has invested in primary care teams to help reduce the workload of family doctors, but says more needs to be done.
Sur says moving quickly on a commitment to reduce the amount of paperwork doctors need to complete would be a helpful solution.
The college says family physicians report spending up to 19 hours a week doing paperwork rather than seeing patients.
“System-wide issues are stretching family doctors far beyond capacity. We need to address the pressing issues facing family doctors today,” college president Dr. Mekalai Kumanan said in a news release Thursday.
The college said its most recent data on people who don’t have family doctors in Ontario is from September 2023.
Upstream Lab at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto did the separate study to determine the number of people who live more than 50 km away from their doctor and how that affected their care.
“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,” Dr. Archna Gupta, a family physician and researcher with Upstream Labs, said in the news release.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
