Doctors call for plan to curb physician shortage

With many doctors from the baby boom generation set to retire in the near future, leaders in the health care community are calling for the creation of a national strategy to ensure the physician workforce can sustain itself.

Of the 20 000 doctors who responded to the 2007 National Physician Survey, 6% said they plan to retire within 2 years and 1% said they plan to leave practice for other reasons. That would mean the loss of about 4000 doctors, and Canadian medical schools aren't producing enough graduates to fill the void.

“Unfortunately, universities are underfunded,” said Dr. Louise Samson, president of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. “But we need to train more doctors.”

The Montréal radiologist says Canada is in desperate need of other types of health care workers as well, such as administrators and medical technicians. The lack of staff at the Université de Montréal Hospital Centre, where she works, means she sometimes has to handle her own administrative duties, such as rescheduling patients' magnetic resonance imaging exams. The lack of technicians, she says, results in magnetic resonance imaging machines sitting idle at night while patients wait months for tests.

Dr. Calvin Gutkin, executive director and chief executive officer of The College of Family Physicians of Canada, says progress has been made in increasing medical school enrollments in recent years, but more spaces are needed.

“We need at least 300 more entry positions to create a sustainable entry flow into practice in Canada,” said Gutkin.

Other proposed solutions to compensate for the doctor shortage include increasing opportunities for international medical school graduates, adopting new practice models to enhance patient flow, further embracing technology and encouraging heath care workers to work more closely together.

“Family physicians need to be working with specialists in a more shared system,” says Gutkin.

Other highlights from the 2007 National Physician Survey include:

• 49% of physicians rate access to advanced diagnostic services as fair to poor

• 64% of family physicians rate patient access to psychiatrists as fair to poor

• 13% of physicians communicate to patients by email

• 55% of survey respondents less than 35 years old were female

• 10.5% of survey respondents more than 65 years old were female

• 35% of physicians plan to reduce their weekly work hours over the next two years.