Canada trails behind other OECD countries in number of physicians relative to population, spending on primary care

Canada’s seeing declining enrolment in family medicine as a specialty among medical students and more graduating family physicians are choosing not to practise generalist office-based care. Post-pandemic, 22% of adults in Canada don’t have a family doctor they can see regularly for care. To bring Canada up to speed with the OECD countries providing the best primary care, the authors say public healthcare here needs some updates, including:

• Moving primary care physicians away from fee-for-service;
• A higher proportion of the total health budget spent on primary care, with medicare coverage extended to prescription medications, dental care and expanded mental healthcare. They say Canada also needs more physicians per capita; and
• Improved patient communications systems, more organized after-hours care and fewer walk-in clinics.