At one time, about seven years ago, about a third of patients (nearly 48,000 residents) served by the Barrie and Area Family Health Team were being cared for by physicians over the age of 60.

To complicate things, incoming doctors don’t take on the same workload as outgoing doctors.

“Old doctors worked 70 or 80 hours a week. New graduates don’t do the same volume,” said Bedard.

One retiring physician with 3,000 patients needs two physicians to replace him or her, and we’re not graduating them two-to-one,” Bedard said.

“Family practice has become much more complex,” said Bedard. “It’s more interesting, but it’s not easy.”

Patients with a family doctor have little to worry about. Murdoch said it’s rare a physician has retired and not had someone to take their place.

Patients without a family doctor may have more difficulty.

With a catchment area (the area served by the family health team) of 250,000, Murdoch said, the patient roster is about 150,000 residents, with many patients travelling outside the area to their physician.

“We don’t know how many people don’t have a family physician,” Murdoch said. “But many people move here and hold on to their doctor elsewhere.”

Murdoch said walk-in clinics in the area were experiencing longer wait times due to caring for patients with physicians outside the family health organization.

Residents in need of a family physician can contact Health Care Connect to have a nurse connect them with a doctor or nurse-practitioner; or residents can contact family physicians to check if they are accepting new patients.

“There was a time when it was five years to get a family doctor in Barrie,” Bedard said. “Now, it’s months.”