Half of Canadians say they don’t have a family doctor or struggle to see one
A new survey from Angus Reid paints a bleak picture of the evolving state of health care in Canada. It found that fully half of Canadians have no family doctor or find it difficult to see the one they have. This represents a 25 per cent increase since 2015, when only 40 per cent of respondents reported such difficulties.
The polling firm conducted an online survey among 4,000 Canadian adults from across the country in December, asking: “If something comes up, how easy or difficult is it to get an appointment to see your family doctor/GP?”
Thirty-one per cent reported that it was difficult, and that it usually take a week or more to get an appointment. Another 18 per cent reported that they had no family doctor at all. A further 35 per cent said they usually have to wait at least a few days but felt it could be sooner if needed. And a mere 15 per cent said it was easy and that they could see their doctor within a day or two.
There were regional differences. Quebec had the highest percentage of people without a family doctor at 31 per cent, while neighbouring Ontario was lowest at 12 per cent. Adding together the numbers for no doctor or difficult to see them, Saskatchewan was worst off at 63 per cent, followed closely by Quebec and Atlantic Canada, each at 60 per cent.
It’s also worth noting that none of these numbers fell between the 2015 survey and the most recent one, with the exception of Alberta, where 10 years ago 16 per cent of respondents said they had no family doctor, versus 14 per cent today. (In Quebec, “difficult to see” dropped from 33 to 29 per cent, but “no doctor” also rose during the same time period.)
The survey also asked respondents questions on a variety of health care issues, and the numbers were dire.
A majority of Canadians felt that provincial health care quality had fallen in the last 10 to 15 years, with 70 per cent of respondents saying it had deteriorated, 24 per cent saying it had stayed the same, and just six per cent reporting that it had improved.
Not surprisingly, similar numbers were found on the question of how satisfied they were with the current performance of their provincial government on health care. On this topic, 71 per cent of Canadians said they were very or moderately dissatisfied, while only 29 per cent declared they were very or moderately satisfied.
Provincially, those numbers ranged from 61 per cent dissatisfied in Newfoundland to 76 per cent Quebec. Pollsters at Angus Reid noted that in Quebec, last year’s passage of Bill 2 “has perhaps exacerbated criticism.”
That legislation, which ties 10 per cent of doctors’ salaries to performance targets set by the province — with payments clawed back if they don’t meet them — has been decried by the Canadian Medical Association as introducing “Soviet-style” monitoring and driving doctors to leave for other provinces.
Quebec also led the provinces in the percentage of people who had been looking for a family doctor for more than a year (18 per cent compared to an eight per cent national average), and was second to Saskatchewan in terms of people who had given up completely on trying to find one. (Seven per cent in Quebec, nine per cent in Saskatchewan, and five per cent nationally.)
Access to specific elements of health care was also found to be wanting. Among respondents who had required it in the previous six months, 54 per cent said it was difficult or very difficult (or in a few cases impossible) to make an appointment with a specialist, while 51 per cent reported the same difficulty with emergency care, 46 per cent for surgery, and 39 per cent a diagnostic test such as an MRI or X-ray.
“According to data from The Canadian Institute for Health Information, the number of family doctors per capita has risen across the country since 2015 and in every province except Alberta and Ontario,” the survey authors wrote.
“But because of an aging population with increasingly complicated medical needs, and more specialized family practices, Canadians have less access to their family doctor in general.”
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