Amid an ever-widening family doctor shortage, an Ontario university is hoping to start turning the tide with a dedicated program – but some experts say that to fix the problem in the long run, we may need to reimagine our health-care system completely.
This month, first-year medical students are beginning their training to become family doctors – part of a brand new, innovative program taking aim at the critical shortage of general practitioners.
Though urgently needed, fewer and fewer med school graduates choose family practice.
This at a time when 6.5 million Canadians now have no access to primary care, and the country is expected to be short 30,000 family doctors by 2028.
“It means that for those people, really, the front door to the health-care system is closed,” Dr. Tara Kiran, a family doctor and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, told CTV National News. “And so they’re left without anywhere to turn if they get sick, but also even to keep them well, manage their chronic conditions. They don’t have the care that they need.”