A new report reveals that not having a family doctor leads to more emergency room visits and hospital admissions for those who have chronic diseases in Ontario.
Chronic diseases include conditions like recurrent depression, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, degenerative joint disease and chronic bronchitis.
The report, done by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, comes on the heels of a report from the Ontario Medical Association that found since 2003, doctors have helped provide care to 630,000 patients who didn’t have a doctor previously, leaving 850,000 Ontarians without a doctor.
“Recently, there has been some progress made in getting more people access to a family doctor, but it is clear that we must stay vigilant with our efforts or else we will continue to drain precious health resources and force patients to suffer unnecessarily,” noted Dr. Ken Arnold, a family physician from Thunder Bay and president of the OMA.
“The lack of access to a family doctor, especially for those with chronic diseases, negatively impacts the quality of life of patients and places unnecessary stress on our hospitals and emergency rooms.”
Here are some of the findings:
People in the 20 to 44 age group, men, those with the highest level of education education and rural residents were least likely to have a regular medical doctor.
People with depression were less likely to have a regular medical doctor.
95 per cent of patients with chronic disease have a family physician and at least 85 per cent are getting the right number of visits with primary care.
15 per cent of Ontarians with at least one chronic condition receive less care than they need or have poor continuity of care, most likely reflecting problems accessing care and resulting in higher rates of emergency attendance and hospital admission.
There are more than 118,000 excess emergency room visits a year due to patients without regular, continuous care by a family doctor.
There are more than 17,000 excess hospital admissions a year due to patients without regular, continuous care by a family doctor.
“Our hospitals and emergency rooms offer high quality care for patients, but this is an extremely expensive and inappropriate way to care for patients who have chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma,” said Dr. Tom Weinberger, chair of the OMA’s general and family practice section, in a release.
“These patients will likely experience complications from their illness that could otherwise be prevented and in many cases their overall conditions will worsen without regular attention from a family doctor.”
Read the full report, The Impact of Not Having a Primary Care Physician Among People With Chronic Conditions, on the Ontario Medical Association's website, www.oma.org.
