Survey finds New Brunswickers unsatisfied with primary care access
According to the Canadian Medical Association, a Canadian’s access to primary care depends on where they live.
OurCare survey results show that New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Quebec struggle the most to access primary care, ranging from 63 to 73 percent of respondents having a regular family doctor, nurse practitioner, or primary care clinic.
Ontario leads the country for access per capita despite its 1.5-million adults without access to primary care.
New Brunswick lags behind the rest of the country for access to evening and weekend appointments, with the OurCare survey showing 11 percent.
Those without primary care might have to pay privately for services, like in the province of Quebec, where nearly 20 percent of surveyed residents reported doing so. New Brunswick, however, dropped below 3 percent of those paying privately for services.
Satisfaction with primary care systems in New Brunswick averaged with the rest of the country with exception to the three Territories, at 27.8 percent.
Dr. Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), says that not only do millions of Canadians not have a primary care clinician, but many of those who do are unsatisfied with the access they have. “We need to do better for everyone, no matter where they live.”
The OurCare survey was conducted by Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician-researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, in partnership with CMA. It gathered responses from 16,876 adults across Canada.
