88% of Canadians have a regular health provider but others struggle to access care

August 2, 2023 — While about 88% of Canadians 12 and older (not including Quebec) said they had a regular health care provider in national surveys between 2019 and 2021, approximately 12% didn’t.Reference1

Source
Statistics Canada. Custom tabulation based on 2019–2020 and 2021 Canadian Community Health Survey — Annual Component (CCHS). 2023.
 

Having a regular health care provider is important for preventing and treating common health issues, regularly monitoring and treating chronic diseases such as diabetes, and supporting good health. Usually, the provider is a family doctor, general practitioner, nurse or nurse practitioner. Primary care providers screen for diseases, treat medical conditions, give lifestyle advice and provide ongoing care with medication and other treatments. They also refer people to specialists (such as surgeons or heart specialists) when more serious health problems develop. Primary care access can mean better health outcomes, and fewer visits to the emergency department and hospitalizations.Reference2 Yet many Canadians struggle to access a regular health care provider when they need health care or advice.

For those reasons, in February 2023 the Government of Canada and the provincesFootnote i and territories agreed one of their shared health priorities must be ensuring that high-quality primary health care services are there when and where people need them — particularly in rural and remote areas and other underserved communities. This includes working with CIHI and other data partners to develop and report on indicators to measure progress over time.

I have many chronic health conditions and am grateful for my family doctor. I worry about when he retires, as I know few doctors are interested in caring for someone like me. I know my worries would be higher if I lived in a rural area where there are fewer physicians. Perhaps it’s time to explore other solutions to our family doctor crisis, and one might be to look at different pay models for physicians.— Heather Thiessen, Patient Partner, Health Standards Organization, Saskatchewan

This section answers one of the questions we need to ask so we can better understand access to health care: How many Canadians reported having a regular health care provider?

Notes
n/a: Not available.

Quebec is not participating in the joint reporting exercise stemming from A Common Statement of Principles on Shared Health Priorities. Therefore, results are not available for Quebec.

Percentage of population age 12 and older who reported having a regular health care provider.

Since provincial survey data is from 2021 and territorial survey data is from 2019–2020, the findings are not directly comparable.

Due to a small sample size, results from Nunavut should be interpreted with caution.

The numbers in brackets show a range of possible values — the confidence interval — for the estimates from the survey data. This range accounts for the uncertainty of the estimates. For example, a province might have a wide range if there is a small number of survey responses and the results are less stable.

Source
Statistics Canada. Custom tabulation based on 2019–2020 and 2021 Canadian Community Health Survey — Annual Component (CCHS). 2023.
 

Reported access to a regular health care provider differs according to age and where people live:

• Young adults (18 to 34) in the provinces (not including Quebec) are the least likely to have a regular health care provider compared with all other age groups. 
• In the Atlantic provinces, a higher proportion of residents say no health care providers in the area are taking patients. 
• People who live in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut reported less access to a regular health care provider.

Various factors can influence access to a regular care provider. For example, provinces and territories organize and deliver primary health care in different ways. People in rural and remote locations may not have the same access to regular providers as those living in cities. There are staffing challenges in some locations that make it difficult for patients to see the same provider. To address these challenges, some provinces and territories have created community health centres that may be staffed by nurses and temporary physicians.

Older adults are most likely to have a regular care provider, according to an international survey done in 2021.Reference3 Almost all Canadian seniors have a regular doctor, similar to seniors in other developed countries.

My adult child lost his pediatrician once he turned 18 and must find a walk-in clinic any time he needs care. My family doctor is not accepting new patients. I think having multiple clinics in the same neighbourhood work together to provide after-hours and weekend care for patients could help address some of the problems. Being seen on the weekend means people won’t miss work and the kids won’t miss school.— Amy Ma, Patient and Public Advisor, Choosing Wisely Canada, Quebec

Attempts to improve access to regular health care providers across the country have included creating teams of diverse health professionals to provide care, as well as changing the way doctors are paid.

Canadians have options including family doctors, walk-in clinics, family health teams and care that is privately funded, such as insurer-paid services and private virtual care clinics. However it’s accessed, primary care must be available to all Canadians, regardless of age and where they live. It would be useful to collect information on how access to primary care varies according to where people live, sex, income level, language and race to understand if there are differences in access and, if so, how to address them.

The pandemic changed how patients interacted with their doctors: more people received virtual care than ever before.Reference4 More information is needed to understand how virtual care may help improve access to care for Canadians, reduce costs for patients and provide faster access to health care, particularly for those living in rural or remote locations.

One option is for people to have access to nurses, paramedics, EMTs [emergency medical technicians] or others to supplement in-person services. People could receive virtual care from a doctor or nurse practitioner with on-site staff who could see them. The idea is to triage patients — figure out who wants a family doctor, who has an urgent need and start creating an attachment program for the people who need a doctor most. — Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya, Frigon Blau Chair in Family Medicine Research, Women’s College Hospital, Ontario

• Resilient health workforce key to pandemic recovery
• Canadian Community Health Survey, Statistics Canada
• Primary care topic page
• Virtual care in Canada