Canadians’ ease of access to primary care depends on where you live: CMA survey
Global News
The survey found though a majority of Canadians have primary care access, the rate at which people have a clinician depends on what province they're living in.
As governments work to improve Canadians’ access to a family doctor, a new report shows the ability to access primary care varies depending on the province or territory.
The report, based on the Canadian Medical Association’s Our Care survey, shows about 5.8 million adults remain without primary care access. But when narrowing down, fewer Canadians in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and two territories have access compared to others such as Ontario, British Columbia or Manitoba.
“I think the report findings really illustrate how we don’t have one national health-care system, instead we have 13 or more primary care systems,” said Dr. Tara Kiran, who worked with the CMA on the survey.
The survey gathered responses from 16,876 Canadian adults from across the country. They were asked if they had a regular family doctor or nurse practitioner, or a primary care setting to receive care.
New Brunswick ranked among the lowest, with 65.9 per cent of respondents reporting they had a primary care clinician — meaning if that number held true for the full population about an estimated 240,000 people are without.
“It’s not surprising to see that we’re lagging behind other provinces with regards to access to family physicians,” said Dr. Lise Babin, a family physician in New Brunswick.
“That’s what the numbers have been telling us for the last years and the fact there has not been much investment in primary care in New Brunswick like in the past years, that has definitely contributed to us lagging behind.”
By comparison, Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba saw the highest numbers of people reporting having a clinician at 87.4 per cent, 88.5 per cent and 88.8 per cent, respectively.
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