Stephen met with frontline Doctors with the Ontario Medical Association to discuss challenges facing primary care physicians, the reasons many Doctors are leaving the sector and challenges attracting new doctors into primary care.

The Problem

• Family doctors report they spend a staggering 19.1 hours per week on administrative tasks for which they are not compensated
• Forty per cent of Ontario doctors say they are considering retiring in the next five years
• More than 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor
• One in five Ontarians are on track to be without a family doctor in the next two years

Solutions

• Expand team based primary care
  • We need more family health teams, and options like community health centres
• Reduce administrative burden and let doctors be doctors
  • Technology like AI based scribes could significantly reduce the administrative burden
• Increase community capacity to ease pressure on hospitals
  • Providing more options within the community will reduce the burden on hospitals and reduce the overall cost to taxpayers