3 million Ontarians at risk of losing family doctor to retirement, provincial Liberals say

More than three million Ontarians could be at risk of losing their family doctor to retirement with thousands of family physicians over the age of 60, the provincial Liberals say.

According to an October government report that tracks physician and patient counts across the province, there are around 2,300 family doctors who are 60 or older serving about 3.1 million patients in the province. Given the age of the doctors, the Liberals say those patients are at risk of losing their physicians to retirement. 

"This is something that we should have been planning for, for six years now," Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie said to reporters Wednesday. "[The Conservatives] don't have a plan to take care of it."

The Ontario Liberals released the document Wednesday, saying it was leaked to them from a concerned member of the healthcare field. Asked to authenticate the document, the Ministry of Health directed CBC Toronto to comments the minister made to reporters Wednesday. Minister Sylvia Jones said only that she had not seen the document personally. 

The report says all of its information is current as of this fall.

Jones defended her government's plan to replace Ontario doctors who retire.

"[Retirements] are exactly why we've made the investments that we are. Expanding access to medical schools, expanding the number of seats, expanding the number of medical schools in the province of Ontario," she said. 

Speaking alongside Crombie at Queen's Park, the Liberal health critic Dr. Adil Shamji said it's not just about graduating family doctors. 

"There are about 17,000 family doctors right now in Ontario and about 6,000 of them are not practicing family medicine," he said. "What we need, one, is more family doctors, but we also need more family doctors practicing family medicine." 

He said there are many who graduate from family medicine programs before deciding to launch careers in something like emergency medicine. 

The Liberals also say the report shows there are 205 communities in Ontario — particularly rural areas — that don't have a family doctor taking on new patients. 

Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said the family medicine situation in Ontario "is not just a crisis but a catastrophe." 

"There are many communities where the mayors, the chambers of commerce, the citizens are telling me that nearly one in two people can't find a family doctor," he said. 

He welcomed the government's decision to tap Dr. Jane Philpott, a former federal Liberal health minister, to lead a team meant to connect Ontarians with a family doctor as a step in the right direction. Philpott declined a request to be interviewed for this story.