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yesterday

Ontario Sees Rise in Focused-Practice Family Doctors as Comprehensive Care Declines

A thirty-year analysis finds fewer full-spectrum family physicians per capita alongside a growth in the overall physician workforce.

Despite the number of family doctors rising in Ontario over the last 30 years, fewer are practicing traditional, office-based, comprehensive primary care.
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Overview

  • Comprehensive family doctors fell from 71 to 64 per 100,000 people in 2021/22, even as overall family physician numbers climbed from 104 to 118 per 100,000 since 1993/94.
  • Nearly 40% of the 6,310 family physicians who entered practice in Ontario since 1993 have devoted their careers to narrow, focused roles rather than cradle-to-grave office-based care.
  • The share of family doctors in focused practice more than doubled over three decades, rising from 7.7% in 1993/94 to 19.2% in 2021/22.
  • Among focused practitioners in 2021/22, 37% worked in emergency medicine, 26.5% as hospitalists and 8.3% in addiction medicine, underscoring a shift into acute and specialized settings.
  • Payment structures, administrative burdens and lifestyle considerations are driving the move toward specialization, highlighting policy gaps as over 6.5 million Canadians remain without primary care access.