Family physicians providing fewer specialist services

The number of general practitioners and family physicians providing specialist services continues to decline, the CMA's 2000 Physician Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) indicates. In 2000, 18.3% of all GP/FPs performed emergency room duties, compared with 30.2% in 1990. The proportion of GP/FPs doing surgery or surgical assisting has also decreased in the last decade, from 31.3% to 19.8%.

As well, the proportion of GP/FPs handling deliveries has declined steadily in the last decade, from 28.6% in 1990 to 18.1% in 2000. This phenomenon may be explained in part by low fees. “Now that midwives have become registered and are paid significantly more than we are,” wrote one family physician, “morale is terrible among those of us remaining.”

For the GP/FPs who still perform deliveries, workload has increased 29% in the last decade, with the average annual number of deliveries performed in the past year rising from 32 in 1990 to 41 in 2000.

The 2000 PRQ was mailed to a random sample of 8000 Canadian physicians, and the response rate was 36.3%. Results are considered accurate to within ±1.9%, 19 times out of 20. —