Canada Province Faces Critical Shortage Of Family Physicians As 2.3 Million Residents Go Without Family Doctor

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has sounded an alarm over a severe shortage of family doctors in the province, with 2.3 million Ontarians currently without primary care physicians. The situation is expected to worsen, with projections indicating that the number could nearly double in the next two years.

This shortage is coinciding with a concerning trend at medical schools where fewer graduates are choosing family medicine, opting instead for other specialties. From 2019 to 2023, there has been a consistent decline in the number of family physicians and those selecting primary care as their first choice.

Despite family physicians being crucial to the healthcare system, many medical students view the field as less desirable due to the high costs of operation, significant educational debts, and the challenges of patient care without adequate support from interprofessional teams. According to Dr. Cathy Risdon, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University, these factors contribute to the growing disinterest among students.

In an effort to address these vacancies, McMaster University, which traditionally filled its family medicine residency spots by the end of the first matching round, has seen a shift. This year, 20 of 103 spots remained unfilled after the first round, leading to a reliance on international medical graduates (IMG) to fill the gap. By the end of the second round of matching in April, all positions were filled, with IMGs comprising a significant portion of the new residents.

OMA President Dr. Andrew Park emphasized the urgent need to reform and promote family medicine to attract more students into the practice. “Students don’t want to enter practice in a broken system. We must address these problems and promote family medicine as a rewarding and impactful career choice,” he stated.

Further complicating the issue, Ontario is planning to expand its medical education capacity. New medical schools, focusing on training family doctors, are set to open at Toronto Metropolitan University in Brampton in 2025 and at York University in 2028. However, Dr. Jobin Varughese, interim Assistant Dean of Primary Care Education at TMU, expressed concerns about the availability of sufficient community physicians to handle the anticipated increase in workload.

The province has increased the number of medical school and residency positions in recent years, but without immediate investment in the teaching workforce, these efforts may not achieve the desired impact on family medicine availability.