3 million Ontarians at risk of losing family doctor to retirement, provincial Liberals say – CBC

Party says leaked document shows 2,300 family physicians nearing retirement age

Nov 28, 2024

More than three million Ontarians could be at risk of losing their family doctor to retirement with thousands of family physicians over the age of 60, the provincial Liberals say.

According to an October government report that tracks physician and patient counts across the province, there are around 2,300 family doctors who are 60 or older serving about 3.1 million patients in the province. Given the age of the doctors, the Liberals say those patients are at risk of losing their physicians to retirement.

“This is something that we should have been planning for, for six years now,” Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said to reporters Wednesday. “[The Progressive Conservatives] don’t have a plan to take care of it.”

The Ontario Liberals released the document Wednesday, saying it was leaked to them from a concerned member of the health-care field. Asked to authenticate the document, the Ministry of Health directed CBC Toronto to comments the minister made to reporters Wednesday. Minister Sylvia Jones said only that she had not seen the document personally.

The report says all of its information is current as of this fall.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-family-doctor-retirements-1.7396133