Ontario’s patient ombudsman received record number of complaints in 2022-23 – CBC

Complaints about primary care tripled year over year, ombudsman says

Nov 15, 2023

Ontario’s health-system watchdog received more complaints last year than any since it opened, many of which don’t fall under the office’s mandate, according to its annual report.

The ombudsman received 4,388 total complaints in 2022-23, according to the report, a 33 per cent year over year increase.

The patient ombudsman, which opened its doors in 2016, provided CBC Toronto with an advance copy of the report, which covers April 2022 through March 2023.

But 785 of those complaints were about primary care. Primary care, which includes family doctors, is often people’s first point of contact with the health care system but it doesn’t fall under the ombudsman’s purview.

“The fact that we are now seeing [primary care] in our complaints, I think just reinforces that there are challenges,” ombudsman Craig Thompson told CBC Toronto.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/patient-ombudsman-report-2023-1.7028063