Underlying reasons for doctor shortage must be addressed

The solution to the family doctor crisis in Kawartha Lakes referred to in the February Advocate (Doctoring a solution) lies not so much in determining how Kawartha Lakes can attract more doctors, but in how to address the underlying shortage of family doctors in the country.

The reason for the family doctor shortage is complicated and not easy to solve locally. More family practice graduates are opting to work in a focused practice in such fields as hospitalist medicine, emergency medicine, general practice dermatology and walk-in clinics and not in the typical office-based family practice.

Most of these focused practices are very necessary but the number of doctors working in those fields reduces substantially the number of family doctors available to do typical office-based family medicine.

The reasons for this shift are varied but the big ones are the burden of paperwork which affects family doctors more than others and is a big contributor to burn-out, the long-term commitment that a family doctor must make to his or her patients and the overhead that office-based family doctors must bear. The first two reasons are the most important.

All the solutions suggested in the article, although laudable, will make little difference if the underlying reasons for the shortage are not addressed. In truth, they are beyond the capacity of local authorities to solve.

It is more in the purview of legislative and regulatory bodies to help address this problem. Increasing medical school enrollment to increase the pool of graduates would help as would better compensating family doctors for the paperwork burden. Also introducing rules to decrease or limit the number of forms and paperwork thrust onto family doctors might make such a practice more attractive.

Peter Petrosoniak, Lindsay