Family doctors deny they're causing Ontario's emergency room problems
CBC
Family doctors are pushing back against claims that they are partly responsible for the woes of hospital emergency rooms across Ontario by limiting patients' in-person appointments.
Ontario Health has just released a new set of statistics showing another month of record-high wait times in the province's emergency departments.
The figures show patients who were admitted to hospital in May spent on average 20.1 hours in the ER before getting a bed in a ward. That matches the highest average wait time ever recorded in Ontario — which was at the peak of the Omicron wave of COVID-19 in January — and is more than seven hours longer than the wait reported in May of 2021.
While health-care experts say the root causes of the emergency room backlogs include staffing shortages and full hospital wards, some people in the health system are pointing to family doctor access as a contributing factor.
In response to CBC News coverage of the situation in Ontario emergency rooms, some patients reported they had to go to the ER because their family doctor wouldn't or couldn't see them in person.
But Dr. Liz Muggah, president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP), says a shortage of family doctors plays a far bigger role in the emergency room crunch than any limits on in-person medical appointments.
"Obviously, it's a problem if patients are not able to get in to see their family doctors in person in a timely way, said Muggah in an interview with CBC News.
"The vast majority of family docs are seeing patients in person and are striking that right balance between virtual and in person," said Muggah.
According to surveys by the OCFP, there's a range of factors putting a heavy workload on family doctors in Ontario right now:
"The whole health system is under strain, enormous strain, and that includes family doctors," said Muggah.
That strain can have an impact on the ability of patients to get in to see their family physicians, something that Sharon Mannell experienced first-hand.
Mannell's family doctor in Kitchener, Ont., diagnosed her over the phone with a sinus infection and issued a prescription. But when the infection didn't respond to the medication and worsened, she says she still couldn't get an in-person appointment with the doctor, and his staff recommended she go to the emergency department instead.
"I would have preferred to go see my doctor about it. Plus, to me, the emergency department is for emergencies," said Mannell in an interview.
She said the experience left her frustrated and a bit scared.
