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* Donalee Moulton

Nearly 80% of family doctors in New Brunswick and 78% in Nova Scotia are no longer routinely accepting new patients, the 2001 National Family Physician Workforce Survey indicates. Both figures, the highest in the country, are more than 10 percentage points higher than the national average. The survey, which had a response rate of 51% (14 319 respondents), was conducted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Les Allaby, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society, isn't surprised by the results. He says New Brunswick has always had one of Canada's highest patient-to-physician ratios, and provincial legislation that limited billing numbers for several years has discouraged new doctors from setting up practices. “New Brunswick has a reputation as being closed [to doctors],” he said.

The province is trying to change that image by hiring a provincial recruiter, something Nova Scotia did several years ago, and it has also set its sights on future graduates by increasing the number of French-language medical seats it funds at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec from 20 to 25. Thirty seats are already sponsored at English-speaking medical schools. Allaby says the province needs to fund at least 10 more seats in both French and English medical schools.

In Nova Scotia, meanwhile, efforts to increase the number of medical students have failed. Dalhousie University had proposed increase from 82 to 90 first-year students, but the province rejected the recommendation.

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