Nearly 6 million Canadians still don’t have a family doctor

An estimated 5.9 million Canadians remain without a regular family doctor , nurse practitioner or primary care team, a new report suggests — an improvement from the last survey in 2022, when 6.5 million people were without primary care.

But although the new OurCare National Survey paints a more optimistic portrait of Canada’s primary care landscape, it also reveals ongoing challenges, including difficulties receiving urgent care, limited access to health records and demographic gaps in care.

“Access to care overall has improved in some ways,” Dr. Tara Kiran, the founder and national lead of OurCare and a family doctor based out of St. Michael’s Hospital, told the Star. “But at the same time, 5.9 million people is a lot of people without primary care. Although that number has improved,