A recent Auditor-General report said about two million Ontarians were without a family doctor as of March, 2024.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
More than half of Ontario doctors are planning to retire or considering that option in the next five years, according to a new survey that underscores the challenges for the health system as baby boomer physicians approach the end of their working lives.
The Ontario Medical Association released the results of an online survey of physicians on Wednesday that found 51 per cent of specialists and 52 per cent of primary care doctors identified themselves as approaching retirement age and either thinking of or planning to hang up their stethoscopes within five years.
At the same time, the OMA, which represents physicians across the province, shared the findings of a survey of medical students that showed 42 per cent were interested in family medicine.
However, only half of those wanted to provide the type of office-based, cradle-to-grave primary care that is in short supply across the country.
“When you see the foundation of medical care crumbling, then we know the whole health care system is in trouble,” said David Barber, a family doctor in Kingston and chair of the OMA’s section on general and family practice. “These new numbers that we’re seeing, they’re especially disturbing because it’s really at both ends of the age spectrum.”
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The OMA released the survey data at a time when the Ontario government is trying to remake family medicine under the leadership of Jane Philpott, the former federal health minister appointed last year to lead the province’s primary care action team.
The province has committed $2.1-billion to creating and expanding interdisciplinary primary care clinics where other professionals, including nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers and dietitians, are supposed to share the workload with physicians, allowing them to take on more patients.
Ema Popovic, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said in an e-mail statement on Wednesday that the government has taken action “to ensure a strong pipeline of family doctors and other primary care providers in our healthcare system for years to come.”
She added it has “undertaken the largest medical school expansion in the province’s history” by adding new undergraduate and residency positions, as well as opening two new medical schools.
The Progressive Conservative government and the OMA also agreed this year to a new payment model for most family doctors that is intended to raise their pay and compensate them for administrative tasks. The new compensation structure takes effect next April.
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Zainab Abdurrahman, president of the OMA, said the Ontario government’s renewed focus on primary care is providing hope to family doctors. But she also said it would take time to undo the long-standing problems that made family medicine unappealing, including its heavy administrative burden and relatively lower pay.
“We have to recognize that this has been a systemic issue that has led us here,” she said.
Premier Doug Ford has promised that every Ontarian will have a primary care provider by 2029. His government has a long way to go: An Auditor-General’s report published Tuesday said that about two million Ontarians were without a family doctor as of March, 2024.
The OMA survey of doctors was conducted online in early October. A total of 540 physicians responded, 267 of whom worked in primary care. The rest were specialists.
The online survey of Ontario medical students took place last spring. In that case, 470 students shared their perspectives on family medicine.
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Just more than 40 per cent said they were likely or very likely to choose a career in family medicine, a figure that is “very promising,” according to Gabrielle Trépanier, the vice-president of advocacy for the Ontario Medical Students Association.
But Ms. Trépanier, a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto, said it was worrying that only half of those respondents said they intended to practise traditional primary care if they were matched to a residency training position in family medicine.
The rest indicated they would prefer narrower types of practice, leadership roles such as hospital administration, or research.
“The reason I and many folks find this concerning,” Ms. Trépanier said, “is that the students who do pursue family medicine, they might not become the comprehensive family doctors that patients actually need to address this crisis.”