Primary Care is in Crisis. Here’s Why.

I don’t need to tell any Canadian readers how difficult it is to find family physicians. And I don’t need to tell any Canadian family physicians how difficult being a primary care provider has become over the past few years. What I’d like to tell you is how we ended up here, specifically from a family medicine and Ontario-centric point of view — and how we can change the situation.

Though Ontario has been moving away from this, many family physicians continue to work under the fee-for-service model. In this model, physicians are paid per patient visit and the amount of time spent on each patient is irrelevant to how they are paid (though there’s some more nuance to the subject such as a regular visit versus a mental health visit). However, the model continues to pressure physicians to place emphasis on quantity rather than quality of care.