More family physicians in Canada focusing on specialty care: report
CBC
If you're one of the estimated more than six million Canadians who can't find a family doctor, it might be because they're focusing on specialty care, the results of a new report suggest.
About 28 per cent of Canada's 9,500-plus family physicians predominantly provide services outside of primary care, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)'s analysis of 2021 payment data, released Tuesday.
That means they mainly perform services in specific areas, compared to typical primary care duties, like office visits and assessments that don't require a referral. For example, a family doctor with a general surgery profile would focus on services like minor surgical procedures.
The main non-family medicine areas were emergency medicine (14 per cent), psychiatry (nearly five per cent) and general surgery (two per cent).
"New trends in practice patterns reveal that many newer family physicians are less likely to engage in comprehensive and continuous family practice," the report's authors wrote.
The percentage of family physicians practising outside of primary care grew slowly from 2013 to 2018. Then, between 2019 and 2022, there was a notable increase, from nearly 26 per cent to 28 per cent. The data excludes Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
The report's authors and the Canadian Medical Association have noted family physicians have reported increasing challenges such as higher workload and administrative demands.
About 74 per cent of Canadian primary care physicians said they believe the quality of medical care has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, according to a report from last June. That's significantly more than the average of other wealthy countries of 63 per cent.
Dr. Andrew Park, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said it is important for family physicians to advocate for patients to get medical tests, treatments and specialists, but they face bottlenecks trying to do so.
Park, who wasn't involved in the report, works in London, Ont., in an emergency department, one of the specializations that the report's authors said attracts family physicians.
He said one reason why family physicians may like the field is because the hospital pays the costly overhead.
"Doctors are voting with their feet."
The OMA has called on the provincial government to fund primary care teams for all family doctors and their patients.
Park said the pressure has been building for at least a decade.
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