In 2015, 31 per cent of Canadians looking for a general practitioner said they had been searching for more than a year – a number that’s shot up to 45 per cent in 2025. (Image Credit: File photo/CJME)

By Daniel Reech/CKOM

Healthcare

Half of Canadians struggle to see family doctor, Saskatchewan reports highest difficulty: study

Feb 6, 2026 | 4:35 PM

Half of Canadians are either struggling to find a family doctor or find it difficult to see the one they have, according to a recent study by the Angus Reid Institute.

The survey found that the percentage of Canadians struggling to find access to a family doctor increased by 25 per cent between 2015 and 2025.

The study said Saskatchewan is the most affected region, with 63 per cent of the total respondents reporting being either without a family doctor (22 per cent) or struggling to find or having difficulty accessing a family doctor (41 per cent).

“Despite the supply of family physicians staying relatively stable in the past decade, there has been much made of a family doctor shortage in Canada in recent years,” the report read.

(Image Credit: Screenshot/ Angus Reid Institute)

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The Canadian Medical Association points to fewer general family doctors, more specialists and Canada’s aging population as the key reasons why Canadians are struggling to find family doctors.

“Indeed, the percentage of Canada’s population that is 65 and older grew from one-in-six (16.1 per cent) in 2015 to one-in-five (19.5 per cent) in 2025, according to Statistics Canada. And the expectation is that Canada’s average age will continue to rise as the changes to immigration rules implemented by the federal government take hold,” it said.

Screenshot/Angus Reid Institute

Beyond accessing family doctors, Canadians everywhere also reported difficulties accessing other aspects of health care. Forty per cent said they faced difficulties booking diagnostic tests; 46 per cent said it was difficult to get the surgery they needed and 56 per cent said they faced barriers in getting an appointment with a specialist.

Additionally, 52 per cent of people found it difficult to get access to emergency care.

In 2015, 31 per cent of Canadians looking for a general practitioner said they had been searching for more than a year – a number that’s shot up to 45 per cent in 2025.

The challenges faced by people seeking health care have caused more of them to give up, from 21 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent last year.

“The family doctor issue remains a challenging one for Canada’s provincial health-care systems to address. According to data from The Canadian Institute for Health Information, the number of family doctors per capita has risen across the country since 2015 and in every province except Alberta and Ontario,” the study read.

“But because of an aging population with increasingly complicated medical needs, and more specialized family practices, Canadians have less access to their family doctor in general. Indeed, in every province in the country, there are more Canadians who say they don’t have a family doctor or can’t get a timely appointment with the one they had, than said so in 2015.”

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