Millions of Canadians don’t have a family doctor — and it’s not by accident.
Canada’s ongoing doctor shortage was the direct result of government policy decisions made decades ago. In the early 1990s, provincial governments deliberately reduced medical school enrolment and capped residencies, setting the stage for the health-care crisis Canadians face today.
Doctor shortages have reached a critical level in Canada. At last estimate, the country produces 17 new doctors per 100,000 people annually, meaning that millions of people lack access to a regular provider.
Structural factors may be contributing to the physician shortage. Residency slots are limited, some provinces have strict medical licensing requirements that include extra fees and arduous application processes, and practice eligibility requirements can become expensive. The situation is challenging for Canadians who have a passion for medicine but few options other than to seek education, residency spots, and jobs abroad.
Rarely does a day go by that Canadians are not reminded of the shortcomings of their health-care system. It’s normal to see reports of emergency room closures due to a lack of physicians, patients fleeing south or to another province to avoid lengthy delays or people leaving the ER without receiving treatment.
However, while these failures may feel normal to Canadians and might even be considered by some to be the price of universal health care, they are not normal in other universal health-care systems.
We have entered that weird space where any criticism of our healthcare system is countered with accusations of fascism.
Two decades after a watershed report on errors and unintended injuries in Canada’s hospitals shook the health-care sector, tens of thousands of Canadians continue to be harmed during a hospital stay — many of them, multiple times, new data show.
One in 17 hospitalizations in 2024-2025 — representing more than 153,000 people — resulted in someone experiencing a potentially preventable harm such as a drug error, hospital-acquired infection, a “patient accident” like a fall or radiation burn or some other incident serious enough to require treatment or a prolonged stay, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Nearly six million Canadians are currently on a health-care waitlist, surpassing levels recorded in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report suggests.
Government data obtained by think tank SecondStreet.org indicate at least 3.7 million Canadians are waiting for surgery, a diagnostic scan, or to see a specialist. But the organization is suggesting figures from Canada’s provinces and territories may not tell the full story.
An Ontario family is calling on the provincial government to introduce legislation that would set maximum emergency room wait times for children after their teenage son died following an eight-hour wait for a doctor in a hospital last year.
GJ and Hazel van der Werken, of Burlington, Ont., said their 16-year-old son, Finlay, had a few days of mild illness and was suffering from migraines before his condition began to worsen. Hazel rushed him to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital on Feb. 7, 2024, she said.
And who received treatment in advance of this young man?
Amherstburg, ONT. — When he was 64, Mike Kessler retired from his job in the auto industry because he felt like his brain wasn’t working as it should. He kept forgetting things like what day it was and the word he was looking for.
His wife, Karen, pushed their doctor for a referral to a neurologist. It took a year to see the specialist and another eight months for testing, but finally, in 2021, they had an answer: Mike had vascular dementia and mild Alzheimer’s.
Their family doctor told them that for now, there was nothing more to be done.
WHAT? Didn’t they offer him MAID?
