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FAMILY DOCTORS LOOKING TO BOOST THEIR NUMBERS

TAMARA SHEPHARD tshephard@toronto.com

Physicians (OCFP) recently launched its campaign, "Life Without A Doctor," to put what it says is the province's lack of equitable access to a family doctor front and centre in the provincial election.

Currently, 1.3 million Ontarians live without a family doctor, OCFP reported.

Dr. David Daien, an Etobicoke family doctor, said his Summerville Family Health Team feels the effects.

"The shortage is real," Daien said. "Today's patients who are more complex, have multiple problems, and often multiple chronic illnesses need a teambased approach to do that properly. It's very important that primary care and family medicine are

properly represented at the table of the Ontario Health Team model. That's really the opportunity for family medicine to regain a bit of strength in the boomer health sector."

Daien added the "administrative burden" on family doctors — the need to carefully read patients' emergency department and specialist reports, lab test results — must be decreased.

"There's a high level of burnout in family medicine," Daien said. "In order to have time to see patients, that administrative work needs to be done in off hours: before opening, on lunch, at night and on weekends."

Dr. Liz Muggah, OCFP president, agreed.

"It's absolutely a crisis," Muggah said. "Those with a family doctor know wait times are longer. I'm on the receiving end of a profound level of illness from patients not seeking care or surgeries and treatments being deferred (during the pandemic). Family doctors have never worked harder." Solutions exist. OCFP'S campaign encourages all political parties in the Ontario election to:

• ensure all Ontarians have a family doctor in a health team so patients can get care they need faster;

• create more accessible care by increasing the time family doctors spend on direct patient care;

• and ensure every Ontarian has a family doctor by recruiting and retaining more GPS.

"It's not that expensive," Muggah said of primary health teams, from which only 25 per cent of Ontario patients get care.

"It's not about building a huge hospital. It's about specializing human resources, health-care workers and providers across Ontario and placing them in primary care with the doctor as the centre of a wonderful team. P.E.I. did it. We can do it in Ontario."

Kimberly Moran, OCFP CEO, stressed the need for Ontario government's investment in family doctors.

"The hallmark of the best health-care systems in the world is that every person has a family doctor, and so as Ontario recovers (from the pandemic), that should be one of the goals," Moran said.

"I'm enormously concerned the foundation of our health-care system, family doctors, is in crisis. To say it's teetering on collapse is not hyperbole. I really want (political candidates) to be talking about this in the election; to recognize — this is a big issue."

Two recent research studies provide insight.

One found double the proportion of family doctors who stopped working in the first six months of the pandemic compared with previous years.

A second study surveyed Toronto family doctors in January 2021 about their practice.

It found 17 per cent of family doctors said they planned to close their current practice within the next five years.

Dr. Tara Kiran, a principal investigator in both research

studies and a family doctor in a family health team at St. Michael's Hospital, called the findings "an important wake-up call" to address Ontario's family physician shortage.

"Now we know the pandemic has driven some people out of the workforce, and others are burned out and thinking, for various reasons, to potentially stop working," said Kiran, who is Fidani Chair in improvement and innovation and vice-chair, quality and innovation at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the

University of Toronto.

"So, we have a crisis in being able to sustain the health-care resources needed to be able to provide primary care to serve our population."

“I’m enormously concerned the foundation of our health-care system, family doctors, is in crisis." - OCFP CEO Kimberly Moran

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Reporter Tamara Shephard wanted to talk with family doctors about their practice experiences, and explore the Ontario College of Family Physicians' campaign offering solutions to the family doctor shortage to political parties running in the Ontario election.

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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