Family Physicians Stopping Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada

We conducted 2 analyses using administrative data to understand whether more family physicians in Ontario, Canada stopped working during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with previous years. First, we found 3.1% of physicians working in 2019 (n = 385/12,247) reported no billings in the first 6 months of the pandemic; compared with other family physicians, a higher portion were aged 75 years or older (13.0% vs 3.4%, P < 0.001), had fee-for-service reimbursement (37.7% vs 24.9%, P < 0.001), and had a panel size under 500 patients (40.0% vs 25.8%, P < 0.001). Second, a fitted regression line found the absolute increase in the percentage of family physicians stopping work was 0.03% per year from 2010 to 2019 (P = 0.042) but 1.2% between 2019 to 2020 (P < 0.001). More research is needed to understand the impact of physicians stopping work on primary care attachment and access to care.

Automated summary

Two analyses were conducted using administrative data to examine the trend of family physicians in Ontario, Canada stopping work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that a higher percentage of physicians aged 75 years or older, with fee-for-service reimbursement, and with a smaller patient panel size stopped working during the pandemic. Additionally, the increase in family physicians stopping work accelerated significantly during the pandemic compared to previous years. Further research is needed to understand the implications of physicians leaving practice on primary care attachment and access to care.