"Recruitment and retention of doctors in Ontario is “not a major concern,” the Ministry of Health suggests in arguments it is making in arbitration with the Ontario Medical Association over physician compensation.
The argument from the province comes as the OMA, which represents Ontario’s doctors, has repeatedly warned that more than two million residents don’t have a family doctor"
“The numbers are one thing, right, but … the government’s approach here is their briefing essentially says there’s nothing wrong. I get there’s posturing, but this is actually quite dangerous posturing on the side of the government.”
The ministry cited various data points to back up its arguments. The supply of doctors has grown 8.9 per cent from 2019-20 to 2023-24, while the population grew 7.1 per cent, it said.
In that same time period, the average income of a physician increased by about 10 per cent, while the average patient encounters per physician dropped 3.7 per cent, the ministry said.
There’s so this thought. Not that I trust this government but it’s interesting if true.
So the number of doctors relative to population grew by 1.7% but average patient encounters dropped 3.7%? That doesn’t exactly add up.
Maybe there’s been a drop in the amount of care needed, but I kinda doubt it. One possible explanation is that people are so disillusioned with our healthcare system that they’re seeking other forms of treatment, either out of province or through alternative (pseudoscience) medicine .
I pretty much stopped going to my family doctor for trivial things because it’s always a half-to-full day affair. I’m going to local walk-in clinics instead.
I’m pretty sure your walk-in visits are billed to provincial healthcare and get added to the total number of visits.
This is the same government that counts student residences as permanent housing. They could claim PhDs as doctors and cite that as part of the supply.
There weren’t enough doctors five years ago, either. If demand is already huge, a small increase in supply is not going to catch up. Furthermore, what percentage of those doctors are in family medicine? I haven’t heard that there’s nearly as much of a shortage of specialists (except in more remote areas where there’s always been a shortage of specialists).
Percentages are deceptive here. What we need are absolute numbers: how many primary care practitioners (both family doctors and nurse-practitioners) are needed, how many we already have, how many new ones are entering the field vs. how many are leaving, and a breakdown of those numbers per region.
