Islanders' access to primary health care remains the worst in Canada in CIHI ranking

About one in four Islanders do not have access to a primary health-care provider, according to the latest report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Released Thursday, the report found 27 per cent of Islanders did not have regular access to primary health care in 2023, about the same as in the 2022 report. By comparison, the province's own patient registry, last updated on July 31, says 20 per cent of Islanders do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, for a total of 34,975 people.

The 27 per cent figure in the CIHI report is the highest percentage among the provinces listed, and well above the national average of 17 per cent. (The report did not include data from Quebec.)

In an emailed statement to CBC News, Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser said she expects the numbers for the province to start improving soon.

"Our commitment to growing primary care through patient medical homes [PMHs] is unwavering," said Fraser. "We've developed efficient procedures to quickly establish new PMHs and ensure widespread access. By 2027, we aim to have every Islander supported by a team of primary-care providers."

The report also placed P.E.I. at the bottom of the provinces listed when it comes to performing joint replacements within 26 weeks, which is considered a clinically acceptable wait.

Only 28 per cent of P.E.I. patients received surgery within 26 weeks, below half of the national average of 62 per cent.

Fraser said improving surgical wait times is complicated because in addition to surgical teams, many surgeries also require recovery time in hospital beds. Those are in short supply on the Island, partly because many are occupied by people waiting for a bed in a nursing home.

The province has been performing a lot more surgeries, though.

While most jurisdictions are seeing a slow rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found surgeries performed on P.E.I. in 2023-24 were up 16.4 per cent compared to 2019-20, the highest increase in Canada.

This is partly due to the province's strong performance in keeping surgeries going during the early months of the pandemic. While the number of surgeries in most provinces fell more than 10 per cent in 2020-21, surgeries were down just 2.9 per cent on P.E.I.

"Our health-care teams did an amazing job maintaining and increasing surgeries during and following COVID-19, ensuring Islanders continued to receive care," said Fraser. "This took great care and attention, and I am proud to see we led the country."

An increase in the number of day surgeries was also a big factor, said Babita Gupta, manager of health system analytics with the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

"I believe this new model of care and approach to surgeries that has been adopted, not just in P.E.I. but across the other provinces as well, is what is contributing to the rise in volume of surgeries," said Gupta.