dialogue

More rural Ontarians will soon be turning to more virtual means of healthcare in the future.

According to the medical director at Dialogue, Canada’s largest employer-funded virtual healthcare platform, more than half a million rural residents in Ontario do not have a primary care provider, which is causing a “healthcare crisis” in more remote regions of the province.

“This is publicly available data,” says Dr. Marc Robin about the figure from a recent report published by the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA). “We know that there’s about 2-and-a-half million people out there that don’t have a family doctor and out of that group, about 525,000 in the rural areas don’t have access to a primary care provider.”

However, Dr. Robin says that figure is offset by the fact that ten million Canadians do have access to employer-funded virtual care, which makes the online option a growing and integral part of the healthcare system.

He adds he expects even more people will turn to virtual care as family physicians begin to retire in rural regions of Ontario.

A recent study found 1.74 million Ontario patients were attached to a doctor aged 65 or older, which is typically considered retirement age.

“People expect access to healthcare the same way they access their banking in some ways,” says Dr. Robin. “So it is really important that the healthcare system can meet people where they are and the best way to find them is on their smartphone.”