Which province has the lowest rates for primary care access?

A new Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report Taking the pulse: Measuring shared priorities for Canadian health care, 2024 out today shows that Canadians in the Atlantic provinces and the North are less likely to have a regular health provider than in other regions.The report’s findings for 2023-24 show that 83% of Canadian adults have access to a regular healthcare provider, while over 5 million adults, or 17%, face difficulties in accessing care. Among older adults (65+), 92% report having access, compared to 74% of younger adults (18 to 34).Other findings:The number of surgeries completed in Canada has rebounded to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019/20. More than 2.3 million surgeries were performed last year—an increase of 5% compared with the year before the pandemic. Surgeries for older adults (age 65+) have increased 14% above pre-pandemic levels. Surgeries for other age groups remain below pre-pandemic levels. The median wait for community mental health counselling in Canada is 25 days. One in 10 people have waited almost 5 months or more for this type of counselling.Four out of five Canadians, or 81%, are interested in accessing their health information online. But fewer than 40% have done so. Almost half (48%) of older adults (age 65+) have accessed their health information online, while only 30% of younger adults (age 18 to 24) have done the same. Meanwhile, the report also showed that for 2021-22, that there were large variations in provinces’ annual rate of family doctors entering and leaving the workforce.In 2022, Canada had 48,199 family physicians, CIHI said. Although the number of family physicians is rising, the five-year growth rate has slowed from 12.9% between 2012 and 2016 to 7.7% between 2017 and 2021.As well, CIHI noted: Family physicians are on average seeing fewer patients per year, from 1,746 in 2013 to 1,353 in 2021.“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who work in healthcare have struggled with overwhelming workloads and longer work hours, resulting in mental and physical exhaustion, burnout and—for many—an exit from their profession,” CIHI wrote. “In 2021–2022, hospital staff (excluding physicians) worked more than 26 million overtime hours—the equivalent of 13,000 full-time positions. At the same time, Canada’s growing and aging population has an increasing need for care. This combination of short staffing and high demand could mean longer waits and deteriorating health for patients, and more burden on health workers.”CIHI added that governments and healthcare planners nationwide are collaborating to tackle health workforce challenges, including:Enhancing working conditions to retain current professionals and attract new talentAccelerating credentialing processes for internationally trained healthcare workersExpanding the number of seats in training programsGathering data to better align the supply of healthcare workers with growing patient demands.

Which province has the lowest rates for primary care access?

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