Subsidizing healthcare.

The real crisis in family medicine is that family doctors are subsidizing a broken and failing system.

80% of the interactions patients have with healthcare are at private physician funded clinics.

At $37 a visit (Ontario) we have to:

Pay for staff, rent, insurance (liability, malpractice, overhead, cyber), electronic medical records, masks/gloves/PPE, computers, cleaning staff, needles, vacinne fridges, sharps containers (and removal services), scales, equipment, medical association, college fees, education.

We also need to save for: retirement, sick days, disability and insurance, pay high accountant fees, legal fees, and pay for our own drug and medical insurance (yeah doctors don’t get access to medicine or paramedical services without paying into a plan).

Costs in the last 4-5 years have ballooned due to inflation by 30%+.

Funding has not changed.

So doctors operating clinics have been subsidizing the system & still providing care despite minimal support.

During Covid the ON gov saved Billions on MD pay by closing our offices.

Demand for care is rising. Immigration 4% in Ontario this year. Patients older, more complicated on more meds. Takes more time. Paperwork has also ballooned. All of which is unpaid.

Many MDs have moved away from 🇨🇦 and/or shut down their office due to this healthcare climate.

The federal gov is now coming in and taking what savings some MDs have built over a career of working 60+ hours a week.

This does not setup a favourable environment to attract and retain MD talent.

Do the math. At $37 a visit how long do you think a physician can spend with you with all the above overhead costs? How many hours a year do they work to break even? How many patients to pay off $200k of med school debt.

The majority of us absolutely love the work we do. And we care deeply and immensely about the health of Canadians. It is a passion and noble career.

All we want to do is be in a position to help our patients optimize their health and reach their full potential.

Every other business facing these challenges has the ability to raise prices &/or cut costs. Physicians are not afforded this benefit, or it puts our patients at risk to do so. We are trapped between two governments none of whom are investing in family doctors and their offices.

But you can’t keep putting oxygen masks on everyone in a crashing plane without putting yours on first.

MDs will close offices and work elsewhere without overhead. They will migrate to favourable jurisdictions.

I worry about the future of healthcare in 🇨🇦

And… as our offices are busy closing due to underfunding we watch as private nurse practioner clinics are opening charging 200-300% more than OHIP reimbursement and the government does nothing.