Doctors say unfair salaries driving them away from family medicine in Canada
CTV
Dr. Garni Tatikian is having second thoughts about her future as a family doctor because of what she calls unfair salaries. Tatikian was among the Canadian health-care workers who shared their experiences with CTVNews.ca about the problems driving some to consider leaving the profession or quit altogether.
Dr. Garni Tatikian is having second thoughts about her future as a family doctor because of what she calls unfair salaries.
The Toronto-based doctor, 33, has been working as a locum physician for about four years since she graduated from medical school in 2019. As a locum physician, she covers family physicians in their clinics typically a few months at a time while they are away for holidays, illness or other reasons.
"So I haven't actually opened my own clinic and one of the reasons for that is that I'm not sure how long I'll continue to practise as a family physician," Tatikian said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. "In the long run, a career as a family physician doesn't seem to be a financially wise one. Historically, pay raises that family physicians get from the government haven't kept up with inflation."
Tatikian was among the Canadian health-care workers who shared their experiences with CTVNews.ca about the problems driving some to consider leaving the profession or quit altogether.
The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) is calling for changes in how family doctors are paid to ensure the "long-term sustainability" of the discipline. The training and advocacy organization, which has more than 42,000 members, noted the "unprecedented degree of burnout" family doctors in Canada are experiencing while caring for patients with increasingly complex needs. Overworked emergency departments and primary care clinics are struggling to attract and retain a sufficient workforce, it added.
"Despite playing a foundational role in the health care system, family physicians remain the lowest-paid medical specialty in Canada," it wrote in a statement.
As of 2017, about 28 per cent of family physicians' gross income in Canada went toward overhead costs, the CFPC added.
