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Patient experiences with primary care

The number of complaints we received regarding experiences with primary care tripled compared to 2021/22. These complaints typically concerned delays, poor communication and insensitive office staff.

Patient Ombudsman received more than 1,000 complaints in 2022/23 about medical care and practices outside of hospitals, including 785 complaints about experiences with primary care.

This is more than three times the number of complaints received about primary care in 2021/22 and is particularly notable when considered together with the rise in serious complaints about the pressures on Ontario’s emergency departments.

Inspire-PHC, a research and policy partnership in Ontario, reports that 2.2 million people in Ontario lacked a regular source of primary care as of March 31, 2022.¹ The Ontario College of Family Physicians estimates that the number could grow to three million by 2025.² More than 100 of the primary care complaints to Patient Ombudsman were about difficulties patients experienced with walk-in clinics. The complaints suggest that many people are relying on walk-in clinics in the absence of having stable, timely access to their own family practitioner. Some patients reported that their family physician threatened to de-roster them for visiting walk-in clinics.

Patient experience

A caller to Patient Ombudsman expressed concern about the lack of family doctors in their community, which was forcing patients to attend the hospital emergency department for basic primary care, including medication refills.

Patient experience

The complainant contacted Patient Ombudsman after receiving a letter from their family doctor threatening to de-roster them because they had used a walk-in clinic on occasions when they couldn’t get an appointment with their family doctor. The family doctor’s suggestion was to go to the hospital emergency department instead.

Patient experience

The caller’s family doctor had recently stopped practicing and they were waiting for their new physician, who was from out of country, to receive their license to practice in Ontario. The caller had COVID and a urinary tract infection (UTI) and had been told the walk-in clinic would not see a patient with COVID. The pharmacist wasn’t willing to provide a prescription to treat the UTI because of the caller’s previous history with UTIs. The caller had tried a virtual online service but had no luck in getting a doctor to write a prescription. The local health unit suggested going to the emergency department, but the caller felt too ill to sit for hours to wait for care.

Patient experience

A patient with a chronic health care issues contacted Patient Ombudsman to express frustration about their inability to find a local family physician. The patient had been registered with Health Care Connect for a year and a half and had contacted multiple other individuals and organizations for help. Patient Ombudsman contacted the local Home and Community Care organization to determine if there were any other referrals that could be recommended, but it appeared all options had been explored.

Our response

Patients and caregivers frequently identified challenges with access, booking appointments and delays in care (19%) and concerns about communication including rude, insensitive office staff and difficulty connecting with physicians’ offices (18%). These complaints are not within Patient Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and are unlikely to fall within the oversight of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Patient Ombudsman refers people looking for a primary care provider to Health Care Connect and to the college when appropriate, but for many there is nowhere to turn with their concerns.