Primary Care Doctor Shortage Undermines Universal Health Care in Ontario

Zunera Hashmi, a Toronto resident, has been anxiously waiting in line for three years to be assigned a family doctor. When she gets stressed, the 28-year-old marketing professional calls the provincial help line but hears the same message: “Wait just a bit longer.” She emails them occasionally but gets no reply.

Over 2.2 million like Hashmi don’t have a regular family physician in the province of Ontario, according to data from health-care researcher Inspire Primary Health Care, up from 1.8 million two years ago. The shortages are dire in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city and its financial capital. One in five Ontarians, most of them Toronto dwellers, could be without a family doctor in the next three years, according to the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP), which represents 15,000 family doctors in the region.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o7jOqKSbnaKce6S7zGilnq%2BjZK6zwMico56rX2d9c3%2BMaW5maWBkvbO1zJqpsmWTlr%2BmecOomq2nomLAqbvRrZignV2qu6Wx0aagp52jYsKvtdWeqayZnGK1pq3LrZ9mm5Gnsm61zWamp6yRp7aw