Family doctor in North Bay, Ont. says family medicine is in a crisis
CBC
A family doctor in North Bay, Ont. says family medicine is in crisis, and several changes are needed to ensure more medical students choose to become family physicians.
According to the Ontario College of Family Physicians there are currently 2.3 million Ontarians without a family doctor. That number is expected to increase to 4.4 million by 2026.
Across the province there are 108 unfilled medicine spots for residency placements, including 11 at NOSM University, in northern Ontario.
"Family medicine clinical practice is just not as attractive as we need it to be to have a sustainable healthcare system," said Dr. Taylor Lougheed, a family physician in North Bay.
Lougheed said there are a few things that make family medicine less attractive to medical students deciding which specialty they want to pursue.
One is that family physicians spend an increasing amount of time on administrative work, managing their practices.
"We're hearing that some doctors are spending upwards of 19 hours a week doing admin tasks, sending referrals, and filling out insurance company forms," he said.
Another issue, said Lougheed, is that family physicians aren't compensated as well as specialists, especially when the overhead of managing a practice is taken into account.
"Their gross income is used to cover overhead, help pay for staff, pay for supplies and the math isn't working out," he said.
Lougheed said many new doctors graduate from medical school with significant student debt and are considering other specialities that pay more.
In the 2024 Ontario budget the province set aside $9 million to plan for a new medical school at York University dedicated to training family doctors.
Lougheed said he welcomes the initiative, but there are already openings for family medicine residencies that are going unfilled.
To attract more family doctors he said a centralized referral system would help relieve some of the administrative burden family doctors currently face.
He said the compensation issue also has to be addressed to bring in more family doctors.
