The provincial program that helps patients find family doctors is failing most registrants in northwestern Ontario, according to data obtained by the CBC from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

Just eight per cent of new registrants to Health Care Connect received referrals to physicians through the service last year, and only 15 per cent of patients classed as complex or vulnerable got referrals.



Province-wide, the referral rate was 55 per cent overall and 61 per cent for complex and vulnerable patients.

More than 4,600 patients in the Northwest were enrolled in Health Care Connect as of April 30, including some who have languished on the looking-for-a-doctor list for well over five years, according to the Ministry.

Health care professionals contacted by the CBC said the numbers point to a continued shortage of family doctors in the region despite an influx of new family medicine graduates from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

Two to three new physicians to replace one that's retiring

Around six new family doctors have opened practices in Thunder Bay, Ont., every year for the past five years, according to data from the Community Economic Development Commission, most of them graduates of NOSM.

In 2014, 14 new doctors opened practices in Thunder Bay.

But those new doctors are barely making a dent in Health Care Connect's list of registrants, according to local care connector Mary Jo Cicigoi, because other senior physicians are leaving their practices.

"You're thinking, 'wow, OK great, I've got two new grads that are coming.' But in three or four months, we're getting two physicians that are retiring. So they are very cautious in saying, 'ok, we will take some from you but we have to wait until we find out what patients are really going to be in need from Dr. so-and-so,'" Cicigoi said.

The executive director of the Harbourview Family Health Team concurred.

John Hatton is executive director of the Harbourview Family Health Team. He told CBC many new physicians opening practices in Thunder Bay are taking over patients from retiring doctors, leaving little room on their rosters for new patients. (LinkedIn)

"Usually the patient load of a senior physician is fairly high, so when they retire it usually takes two to three new physicians to take up that roster size," John Hatton said, estimating that a senior physician might have 2,500 to 3,000 patients on her or his roster while a new doctor might start with 800.

One new physician recently launched a practice at Harbourview, Hatton said, but that physician is slowly taking over patients from another that is retiring.

The doctor is also registered with Health Care Connect, Hatton said. But he estimated his practice has only taken on about 100 patients through the service.

Cicigoi phones clinics quarterly to keep up to date on doctor availabilities, she said, and she encourages people who are registered with Health Care Connect to check in with her every two months.

Referral rates dropping province-wide

If she can't connect them with a doctor, she will offer them addresses of walk-in clinics, give them names of clinics that are taking applications from prospective patients, and point them to other resources, such as the health unit, that might be able to address their immediate health care needs, she said.

When she does succeed in placing a patient with a physician, "it's the best feeling ever," she added.

Last year's Health Care Connect referral rate in northwestern Ontario represents a substantial drop from an average of 69 per cent per year in the preceding four years.

The province-wide referral rate dropped from an average of more than 90 per cent in previous years.

The Ontario government ended financial incentives to physicians for taking new patients on June 1, 2015 - though it maintained incentives for those accepting complex or vulnerable patients.