Five million Canadians don't have a family doctor, the College of Family Physicians of Canada said Thursday as it released a policy paper on fixing the problem.

Among other measures, the college wants more positions in medical schools dedicated to training family doctors. It said that by 2008, the number should be raised from 2,100 to 2,500.




It also wants a new federal-provincial fund to address waiting times, set up in September, to be spread beyond the five areas of specialty that Prime Minister Paul Martin and the provincial and territorial leaders had identified.

The group cited a Decima poll it had commissioned in early September in which more than 2,000 people were surveyed about health care.

In addition to determining that 16 per cent of respondents are not under the care of a family doctor, the poll found:

  • 46 per cent of people think governments should measure waiting times from the time a person first seeks advice from a family doctor about a medical problem, not from the time he or she first sees a specialist, as is the case now.
  • It took between three months and a year to find a family doctor for 33 per cent of those who reported they had had problems tracking down a physician accepting new patients.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

"Why is there this gap between what Canadians say they want and value, and what the system, those responsible for the system, seem to value?" said Dr. Calvin Gutkin, the executive director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Fixing the shortage of family doctors won't be as simple as increasing the number of training spots, Public Health Minister Carolyn Bennett said in a speech as the college opened a three-day meeting in Toronto Thursday.

Bennett, who is a family doctor by profession, said many medical students don't want to choose it as a specialty.

There's a perception that they can pay off their enormous student loans more quickly by choosing to specialize as a heart surgeon or oncologist, she said.

Some medical schools also foster an attitude of "almost disdain and mockery" toward family doctors, Bennett added.