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Health P.E.I. says there has been a reduction in the number of people on the provincial patient registry, the list of Islanders waiting to be assigned to a primary care provider.
The registry had 31,707 names as of the end of September, a drop of more than 5,100 patients since January of last year.
Health P.E.I. said 15,669 residents were assigned to a doctor or nurse practitioner between January 2025 and September 2026, and 20,040 new applications were added to the registry in that same period.
The health authority also found 9,523 records to be inactivate, meaning people moved out of the province, died, had a duplicate record or were ineligible.
Health P.E.I. had previously aimed to reduce the patient registry to fewer than 5,000 people by 2027, but back in April, 5,069 Islanders were added to the waitlist while 2,960 were assigned a primary care provider. (CBC)
As of the end of September, the Queens region had the most applications at 14,069. It includes Charlottetown and Stratford.
That’s followed by Eastern Prince, which includes Summerside and Kensington, with 8,999 applicants.
Eastern Kings, which includes Souris and Morell, is the region with the fewest registered applicants at 1,055.
Health P.E.I. had previously aimed to reduce the patient registry to fewer than 5,000 people by 2027, but the numbers seemed to be moving in the wrong direction earlier this year. Back in April, 5,069 Islanders were added to the waitlist while 2,960 were assigned a primary care provider.
At the end of April, there were 34,621 Islanders waiting to be assigned to a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Health P.E.I.’s efforts have been hindered by multiple doctors closing their practices and moving to another province or retiring, which added patients to the registry.
Officials with the health authority said Wednesday they are taking a different approach at UPEI’s patient medical home, affiliating people to an entire team of providers instead of a single doctor or nurse practitioner.