Ontario Losing Family Docs, Old and Young

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) released data in December showing that while more than 2.5 million Ontarians currently don’t have access to a family physician (FP), 52% of current FPs are considering retirement or plan to retire in the next 5 years.

At the same time, a survey released by the Ontario Medical Students Association (OMSA) showed that only 42% of students were considering pursuing family medicine as a career. Only half of those students said they wanted to provide comprehensive cradle-to-grave care, the traditional type of family medicine, as opposed to undertaking enhanced skills training, which would enable them also to pursue another discipline and not work full time as an FP.

“Seeing the percentage of our family doctors considering retirement in the next 5 years and the decreased interest in longitudinal comprehensive family medicine among those coming into the field is sobering and concerning,” OMA President Zainab Abdurrahman, MD, told Medscape News Canada. ---More...

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