Ontario family doctors meet online to discuss alternative career paths amid primary care crisis – CBC
Ontario Union of Family Physicians says family medicine not sustainable in province
Feb 05, 2024
A group of family physicians held a meeting on Monday evening to talk about alternative career paths because it says the practise of family medicine is not sustainable in Ontario.
Dr. Ramsey Hijazi, founder of the Ontario Union of Family Physicians, a group of more than 1,700 doctors, said the organization had planned a mass movement of doctors to take a “coordinated day off” on Monday but decided to hold a virtual meeting instead to avoid any impact on patient care. About 150 family doctors took part in the career summit.
Hijazi, a family physician in Ottawa, said the point of the meeting was to draw attention to the crisis that family doctors are facing. He said family medicine in Ontario is unsustainable because of inadequate funding from the Ontario health ministry and the amount of time that family doctors have to spend on administrative work, which is estimated to be roughly 19 hours a week.
“It really speaks to how dire the situation is and frankly how desperate family physicians are,” he said.
