{"id":314771,"date":"2026-02-24T13:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314771\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T13:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:53:09","slug":"atlantic-provinces-quebec-trail-in-access-to-family-doctors-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314771\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic provinces, Quebec trail in access to family doctors, study says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A doctor at a health clinic in Calgary in July, 2023. 87.2 per cent of survey-takers in Alberta say they have a regular health care provider.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Patients in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta are more likely to have family doctors than their counterparts in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, according to a new report that lays bare disparities in access to primary care across the country.<\/p>\n

The latest results from the OurCare project, a national survey on Canadians\u2019 experiences with primary care, show that just over 88 per cent of respondents in Ontario and Manitoba have a regular doctor, nurse practitioner (NP), or primary care clinic \u2013 the best results of any jurisdiction. <\/p>\n

Alberta is close behind, with 87.2 per cent of survey-takers saying they have a regular health care provider. By contrast, fewer than 70 per cent of respondents in Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island reported having a family doctor or other steady provider. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat our survey results show is that millions of people in Canada struggle to get care, and how much you\u2019re struggling really depends on the province or territory you live in,\u201d said Tara Kiran, a family doctor and researcher at the University of Toronto and St. Michael\u2019s Hospital, which is part of Unity Health Toronto. <\/p>\n

Quebec government and family doctors reach agreement in principle, putting contentious legislation on hold<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Kiran launched the OurCare project four years ago to quantify the breadth and depth of a national primary-care shortage that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

The first survey, conducted in 2022, found an estimated 6.5 million Canadians did not have a family doctor \u2013 a figure that became a frequent talking point as all levels of government worked to recover from the pandemic. <\/p>\n

In December, OurCare released the results of a follow-up survey<\/a>, conducted last year, that estimated the number of Canadians without primary care had fallen to 5.9 million. <\/p>\n

The province-by-province results from the 2025 survey were released Tuesday as a separate report<\/a>. Nearly 17,000 Canadians answered the online questionnaire.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Should family doctors have patient quotas?<\/a><\/p>\n

British Columbia was the most improved province. Last year, 82.6 per cent of respondents said they had a family doctor or nurse practitioner, up from 71 per cent in the 2022<\/a> survey. The earlier study polled about 9,000 Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn early 2023 in B.C., we were in a place where physicians were burned out, closing their practices or actively planning to retire,\u201d said Goldis Mitra, a family doctor in North Vancouver and the British Columbia lead for OurCare. <\/p>\n

Dr. Mitra credited the turnaround to a new payment model, enacted in February, 2023, that made providing traditional cradle-to-grave primary care more lucrative and appealing. <\/p>\n

Other provinces, including Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have also reached deals with their physicians that incorporate similar features, such as compensating family doctors for administrative work and patient enrolment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, three of the four Atlantic provinces continue to struggle. In PEI, only 61.6 per cent of respondents said they had a doctor or NP in 2025, while in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, the figures were 65 per cent and 69.1 per cent, respectively. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Family doctors won\u2019t just appear in Canada \u2013 we have to prioritize training and supporting them<\/a><\/p>\n

Nova Scotia fared better at 80.2 per cent, just below the national average of 81.1 per cent. <\/p>\n

Ruth Lavergne, an associate professor in the department of family medicine at Dalhousie University who holds a Canada Research Chair in primary care, said the Atlantic provinces continue to face a \u201cperfect storm\u201d of health care challenges. <\/p>\n

Their populations are generally older, sicker and poorer than elsewhere in Canada, and some small rural communities struggle to attract doctors, she said. <\/p>\n

However, Prof. Lavergne noted the more positive results in Nova Scotia reflect significant investments across the region in building interdisciplinary clinics, as Atlantic provinces move away from the old model of solo doctors billing provincial governments on a fee-for-service basis. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just takes time for us to see results,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Quebec also fared poorly in the survey, with only 67.7 per cent of respondents saying they had a family doctor, NP or access to a primary care clinic. <\/p>\n

Mylaine Breton, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke who studies health care organization, said the province continues to struggle with primary-care capacity in part because family physicians are required to work a certain number of hours each month in high-needs places outside their practices, such as emergency rooms. <\/p>\n

However, she noted the survey found that overall satisfaction with the primary care system was low across all provinces and territories, with a national average of 27.8 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all agreed about our dissatisfaction, wherever you live,\u201d Dr. Breton said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A doctor at a health clinic in Calgary in July, 2023. 87.2 per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2522,2511,2523,2476,2503,2524,289,2502,2516,2517,2513,2504,2501,113,835,246,2515,2509,2533,2505,2506,1523,103,397,396,61,60,2512,166,1529,2525,768,2528,2529,2531,2526,2530,2152,2527,2507,2519,2520,1650,2518,2153,2510,80,2521,2514,2508,268,2532],"class_list":["post-314771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}