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Canada ranked last in access to primary health care in a survey of 10 high-income countries released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information on Thursday. Eighty-six per cent of Canadians aged 18 and older said they had a doctor or a place they usually go for medical care in the 2023 survey by the Commonwealth Fund. That's down from 93 per cent of those surveyed in 2016 — and means that an estimated four million Canadian adults did not have access to primary care last year, the study said. The percentage of people who had access to primary care...

he United States could save $67 billion each year in health care costs if every person used a primary care provider as their main source of care, according to one estimate. Yet 30% of Americans don't have a primary care doctor due to a shortage of providers, National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). The Association of American Medical Colleges projects we'll be short as many as 124,000 physicians by 2034, more than a third of them primary care providers. According to a recent survey from Athenahealth, 80% of physicians already report talent shortages within their practices.

Newly Insured Struggle to Find Primary Physicians "When Olivia Papa signed up for a new health plan last year, her insurance company assigned her to a primary care doctor. The relatively healthy 61-year-old didn't try to see the doctor until last month, when she and her husband both needed authorization to see separate specialists. She called the doctor's office several times without luck. "They told me that they were not on the plan, they were never on the plan and they'd been trying to get their name off the plan all year," said Papa, who recently bought a plan...

The serious shortage of primary care doctors in America will get much worse unless the country reforms its graduate medical education system, researchers from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) reported in Academic Medicine. Less than 25% of newly qualified doctors go into primary care, and just 4.8% move into rural areas, the authors added. This serious problem will only get worse unless some fundamental changes are introduced. … The American GME (graduate medical education system) depends on public funding. It receives almost $10 billion from the Medicare program, plus $3 billion from Medicaid....

Te NHS has begun rationing common surgical procedures such as hip replacements and cataracts removal in an effort to save money, it was revealed yesterday. New figures have found one in three Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England are reducing access to treatment for “non-urgent” operations. Examples of rationing include knee operations only being allowed to go ahead where patients are in severe pain, overweight patients being made to lose weight prior to procedures, and cataract patients being denied treatment until their sight problems seriously affect their ability to work.

More than 2,700 students chose to focus on Internal Medicine in 2010. One word of advise...SPECIALIZE! Who in their right mind would want a career as a Primary Care doctor? With millions more coming into the system, the primary care doctors will be (if not already) totally overburdened and stressed out. Quality of healthcare will undoubtedly decrease as these doctors desperately seek more downtime to balance their own life issues. One bit of advise for More than 2,700 students chose to focus on internal medicine in 2010.

Reform: If Massachusetts is any guide, the passage of ObamaCare is almost certain to increase demand and worsen the shortage of doctors. Access to health care doesn't mean much if there's no doctor to provide it.Suppose health care reform passes and all are insured, by force or otherwise. The U.S. will be short 124,400 front-line physicians by 2025, according to the Association of Medical Colleges. That does not include the 15,585 new primary-care providers the administration plan is estimated to require. The Massachusetts reforms enacted in 2006, designed to provide universal coverage, provide an insight into what we might expect...

Primary care physicians spent the greatest amount of time dealing with health plan administrative tasks. Physicians know that the phone calls, faxes and e-mails sent between their practices and health plans take time. Researchers have determined how much time it takes and what it costs.A study published online May 14 in Health Affairs estimates that practices' interactions with insurers cost $23.2 billion to $31 billion a year. The average physician spends 43 minutes per work day -- more than three hours a week -- dealing with health plan administrative requirements. Practices pay a price for participating in health plansPutting a...

WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president. The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans. One proposal — to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists — has touched off a lobbying fight. Family doctors and internists are pressing Congress for an increase in...

Lack of primary care physicians boosting health costs, hassles. There were days last fall when Gabrielle McGrew felt she must be the most popular physician in Oregon – and she hadn’t even begun practicing. McGrew is one of only three graduating residents who are choosing to practice primary care medicine, and the only one in Portland. Most of the other 31 internal medicine residents are taking fellowships that likely will lead to careers as specialists. the long-term implications of the growing shortage of primary care doctors could be a disaster, experts say, given the steadily growing number of senior citizens...

Almost two-thirds of primary care physicians would choose another field if they had their careers to do over, a new survey indicates, while more than 50 percent consider themselves "second class citizens" compared to surgical and diagnostic specialists. The survey was conducted for Physicians Practice, an award-winning practice-management journal read by more than 275,000 physicians nationwide. Conducting the survey was physician search and consulting firm Merritt, Hawkins & Associates. The annual survey is intended to measure the career satisfaction levels and concerns of primary care doctors, defined as family practitioners, general internists, and pediatricians. The survey suggests that though primary...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Primary care -- the basic medical care that people get when they visit their doctors for routine physicals and minor problems -- could fall apart in the United States without immediate reforms, the American College of Physicians said on Monday. "Primary care is on the verge of collapse," said the organization, a professional group which certifies internists, in a statement. "Very few young physicians are going into primary care and those already in practice are under such stress that they are looking for an exit strategy." Dropping incomes coupled with difficulties in juggling patients, soaring bills and...