The number of family physicians in Canada who provide specialty care has risen steadily over the past decade as the growth rate of new family physicians has continued to slow.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information’s latest analysis of payment data from 2021 reveals that 28% of family physicians in Canada (9,506) are predominantly providing specialty care, moving away from traditional family medicine activities. While the activities of family physicians are varied, the most common family physician billing profiles (after family medicine) in 2021 were emergency medicine (14.2%), psychiatry (nearly 5%) and general surgery (2.1%).
Demographic data reveals that a large proportion of family physicians in Canada who provide specialty care are established (with 71% having completed medical school over a decade ago), and more than half of this group are male. More than 70% of them work in urban centres, a number that has steadily increased over the past decade.
Growth rate of family physicians in Canada has slowed
As Canada’s population continues to increase, the 5-year growth rate of family physicians in Canada has slowed from 12.9% between 2012 and 2016 to 7.7% between 2017 and 2021. Family medicine represented 76% of vacant residency positions in 2023.
Canada’s health care job vacancy rate climbs in wake of COVID-19 pandemic
These new findings, along with other health system challenges, point to a growing health workforce problem in Canada, as demand for health care continues to outpace supply and workforce vacancies continue to increase. New pan-Canadian vacancy data shows the following:
- Health care job vacancies more than doubled to 120,140 in 2022–2023, compared with 49,675 in 2018–2019 prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Personal support workers, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and selected mental health workers accounted for two-thirds of all health care job vacancies in 2022–2023.
- In 2021–2022, an unprecedented amount of overtime was logged by hospital staff — over 26 million hours, equivalent to more than 13,000 full-time positions.
As Canada explores solutions to alleviate the current challenges facing the health care sector, cohesive and integrated national health system data is essential to support provinces and territories as they begin to chart a course toward recovery.
“Without question, these new metrics confirm that health care workers in Canada are experiencing significant challenges. This is also a time of innovation, when governments, health system leaders, policy-makers and people on the front lines are implementing new policies and innovations to address these challenges, to create a stronger health workforce for the future,” said Deb Gordon, interim CEO of Health Workforce Canada, a new independent organization created to support partners in addressing health workforce challenges and to allow for critical long-term planning. “Health Workforce Canada will work closely with partners, including CIHI, to improve the collection and sharing of data and information as well as practical solutions to address health workforce challenges now and in the future.”
About CIHI
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing essential health information to all Canadians. CIHI works closely with federal, provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders throughout Canada to gather, package and disseminate information to inform policy, management, care and research, leading to better and more equitable health outcomes for all Canadians.
Health information has become one of society’s most valuable public goods. For more than 30 years, CIHI has set the pace on data privacy, security, accessibility and innovation to improve Canada’s health systems.
CIHI: Better data. Better decisions. Healthier Canadians.