Ask Ontario’s Doctors: Why family physicians are leaving practice and what needs to be done

Ontario’s doctors warn that family physicians are increasingly considering leaving their practices due to systemic challenges.
OMA President Dr. Andrew Park hosted a panel including two family physicians who shared firsthand accounts about making the difficult decision to leave full-time family medicine practices and are now working in other areas of medicine.
OMA physician leaders also discussed urgently needed solutions and the impact of a lack of family doctors on the health-care system overall.
Panellist include:
• Dr. David Barber, Chair of the OMA’s Section of General and Family Practice and a family doctor in Kingston
• Dr. Natalie Leahy, a family physician, now practicing as a General Practitioner in Oncology with the Durham Regional Cancer Centre
• Dr. Dannica Switzer, a rural generalist in northern Ontario

[@dr.catherineoblenes2917]

Excellent and honest presentations. I hope the OMA will also do a similar show on the pressures on specialist physicians in private practice, some of which are the same (continuous cuts in funding, escalating overhead) and others of which are unique to specialists.

[@marajevomanash]

Take a look at the data and categorize the Most Common and Least Common health problems that people have gone to their family doctors for. For Most Common health problems such as fever, common cold, flu, bloodwork etc, have people visit Walk-In clinics and have them send all the data to their family doctor.

[@George-z4d]

I know someone who is a doctor in the US but is Canadian and wanted to return to Ontario to practice medicine but was told that they'd have to pay $75,000 and retrain. Guess what? They decided to stay in the US. How clueless can Ontario be to do something like that? Do we really think that an American doctor is inferior and needs retraining? Way to maintain a doctor shortage!

[@gazthejaz8910]

Canadian health system is a joke

[@MedicalAutonomyProject]

The government is throttling the supply of doctors to throttle the OHIP billing codes

[@PMunkS]

Two options are available: 1) The OMA and the Province might develop the on-line encrypted software tools needed by doctors to efficiently operate a private practice or, 2) the OMA and the Province may enable business interests to intervene as a profiteering middle-man in the doctor-patient relationship and their relationship with Ontario's public health agency. The OMA and the Province have very evidently opted for the latter course. Personally, I favour the former option. The profiteering motive will only sacrifice value and quality of service, while extracting profit from the healthcare exchange.

[@leinad5243]

The old paradigm of the family doctor office is out dated...The walk in clinic model should be expanded...in addition the admistrative soft ware should be digitized...no paper..online forms / reports have been developed....all foreign doctors should be certified...stop the OMA gate keeping...sorry doctors need business training...unionization and pensions..

[@woody3590]

Doctors are leaving northern Ontario because their spouces cant find jobs....poor babies...they dont need to...their spouce as a doctor makes twice or three times what normal folks are making these days....they can get by a lot easier than most on one salary!

[@DS91284]

Oof.

[@velmano9191]

And you guys don't pay your fair share of taxes after 'incorporating' yourselves...just stop the greed. You got into medicine to help people, NOT fleece them or OHIP for money.

[@kamranmahfooz12]

What is wrong with you?