![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6870950.1714672220!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
Fewer medical students going into family medicine contributing to doctor shortage
If you've been searching for a family doctor, you know how hard it is to find one – many people in Ontario don't have access to one.
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
- Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
The Ontario Medical Association is concerned about the declining number of medical students choosing family medicine and says solutions are needed before the doctor shortage gets worse.
After being with the same family doctor for more than 30 years, Gail Ouellette's physician retired late last year and she has been searching for a new one since.
"I'm trying to be proactive with my health care and I just get the door slammed in my face," she said. "I've been told, sorry, there's nothing available."
Ouellette has placed herself on a wait-list, while continuing to call different clinics.
"And they go probably a couple of more years. So if I get sick, I have to either go to the ER or I have to go to a clinic and try and see a doctor there."
According to the Ontario Medical Association, 2.3 million people across the province do not have regular access to primary care and that number is expected to nearly double in just two years,
"Lack of access to a family doctor can negatively impact health outcomes," says OMA President Dr. Andrew Park.
He says that while Ontario needs family doctors, medical students are avoiding family medicine.
"What does this all mean for patients? It means that there will be fewer family doctors practicing family medicine, which means less access to care."
Costs for running doctors' offices are way up, but their payments are not.
"In the past 10 years, inflation has grown by 25.4 per cent, while average billings have grown by only 6.1 per cent," says Park.
That's on top of a growing administrative burden.
"If you imagine any job that you do, if you to do a simple task and that task to 15 steps instead of two, that's what it's like practicing family medicine these days," explains Park.
Doctors want the issues addressed.
"We want to urge the urgency. This is urgent. We need to do something now so that students will pick family medicine as the career of choice," says Dr. Azadeh Moaveni, director of undergraduate medical education in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto.
So that patients – like Ouellette — can have a family doctor.
"Yeah, something's broken," says Ouellette.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6110769.1665857313!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Three dead, two hospitalized, following collision in Fredericton: police
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
Amid climate change warnings, Canadians lukewarm on electric vehicles
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
Montreal man on the hook for thousands of dollars after a feature on his Tesla caused an accident
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna's biggest-ever concert transforms Rio's Copacabana beach into a massive dance floor
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
1 person killed and 23 injured in a bus crash in northern Maryland, police say
One person was killed and 23 others were injured when a bus crashed early Sunday on Interstate 95 in northern Maryland, police said.
Nylander defends Leafs' core after playoff exit, Toronto again picks up the pieces
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
‘Love has no boundaries’: Sask. couple in their 90s and 80s get married
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Video shows gaggle of geese stopping traffic on Highway 1 near Vancouver
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.