{"id":7397,"date":"2026-02-28T11:56:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=7397"},"modified":"2026-02-28T11:56:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T11:56:48","slug":"college-of-family-physicians-of-canada-calls-on-ottawa-to-increase-support-for-family-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=7397","title":{"rendered":"College of Family Physicians of Canada calls on Ottawa to increase support for family doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"ttsIcon-cIBsl\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"toggletip-tKLKF ttsToggleTip-DSCNQ\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"toggletipInfoButton-yoX4E\" aria-label=\"More information\" aria-controls=\":R89qnl:\" aria-describedby=\":R89qnl:\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" focusable=\"false\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M11 7H13V9H11V7ZM11 11H13V17H11V11ZM12 2C6.48 2 2 6.48 2 12C2 17.52 6.48 22 12 22C17.52 22 22 17.52 22 12C22 6.48 17.52 2 12 2ZM12 20C7.59 20 4 16.41 4 12C4 7.59 7.59 4 12 4C16.41 4 20 7.59 20 12C20 16.41 16.41 20 12 20Z\" fill=\"black\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) is urging the federal government to reduce administrative burdens and barriers for family physicians so that they can deliver better patient care.<\/p>\n<p>During a news conference on Friday, CFPC president Dr. Sarah Cook said every Canadian deserves access to a family doctor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not just access to any care, not episodic care, not a walk-in when things fall apart,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But timely, continuous, co-ordinated care with a family doctor who knows them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She also said nearly six million Canadians don&#8217;t have access to a family doctor. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That is not a marginal issue, it is a design failure,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cook said reducing administrative burdens, increasing digital interoperability and making family medicine more accessible for early-career physicians are three &#8220;practical&#8221; and &#8220;immediate&#8221; actions that the government can take to support current doctors and strengthen access to care.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The federal government promised nearly half a billion dollars to reduce administrative burden and that commitment needs to be fulfilled,&#8221; she said. <\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the federal government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/health-canada\/corporate\/transparency\/health-agreements\/shared-health-priorities.html\" target=\"_blank\">pledged <\/a>$505 million over five years to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Canada Health Infoway and federal data partners to &#8220;improve digital health tools, develop new health data indicators, support the use of data to improve safety and quality of care and support the creation of a centre of excellence on health worker data.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cook added that family physicians report spending on average 10 to 19 hours per week on administrative tasks. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fastest way to increase access to care in Canada is to give family doctors their time back,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>Cross Country Checkup is asking: Are you looking for a family doctor? Are private clinics the solution to Canada\u2019s healthcare crisis? Leave your\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSfz7NLvAI678_BbjMastfUCchYQsLXJV-3XnBuGvKf6csA1eQ\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>comment here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>\u00a0and our team may get in touch or read your comment on air.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cook also said family doctors are &#8220;unnecessarily used as gatekeepers&#8221; for patients to access the Disability Tax Credit.<\/p>\n<p>The 16-page form can take up to an hour to complete, she said, adding that with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/canada-disability-benefit-program-applications-1.7567191\" target=\"_blank\">the rollout of the Canada Disability Benefit<\/a>, administrative demands on doctors could grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Reducing administrative burden is not about convenience. It is about capacity,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cook also called for &#8220;long-term funding&#8221; for AI transcription in family medicine.<\/p>\n<p>These tools can &#8220;save three to four hours, per physician, per week&#8221; and allow doctors to engage more directly with patients in a visit, she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That time translates directly into more patient visits and more sustainability for physicians.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The urgency of Bill S-5\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Cook also called for health information to be connected and accessible regardless of location of care.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Health information systems in Canada largely don&#8217;t connect to one another,&#8221; Cook said. Due to this, medical records can be &#8220;fractured into multiple systems&#8221; with no single coherent record.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Canadians can travel from clinic to clinic, city to city and across the country, their health records should be able to as well,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Connected Care for Canadians Act (Bill S-5) is an &#8220;important step to mandate interoperability,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Health Canada, the bill\u00a0&#8220;would require all information technology (IT) companies providing digital health services in Canada to adopt common standards to support protected and secure information exchange across various systems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cook urged federal policymakers to adopt the bill &#8220;quickly&#8221; and &#8220;ensure that it&#8217;s supported by a robust set of regulations to achieve real improvements soon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/pub\/82-570-x\/2024001\/section4-eng.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Income Survey<\/a>, close to three million Canadians aged 15 and older in the provinces reported unmet health care needs in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the result of policy choices, and it can be improved by policy choices,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cook said she is meeting with the health minister&#8217;s parliamentary secretary, Maggie Chi, on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/family-doctors-access-9.7108620?cmp=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}