Believing that "better is possible," a family doctor and other researchers are asking Canadians to share their experiences with the country's primary health-care system – and what they want from it – as a way to help guide future reform.
Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and one of the doctors behind the , told CTV's Your Morning on Monday, while the COVID-19 pandemic "shone a light" on some of the cracks that exist in the current system, it also presents an opportunity to try and repair it.
"I do think that better is possible. I think that we can reimagine a future system and that the time is now," she said.
The survey comes after Kiran and others recently published a study that found more than 170,000 patients in Ontario in the first six months of the pandemic, equating to nearly three per cent of the province's practicing family physicians.
Research from the Angus Reid Institute released in September found six million people in Canada do not have a family doctor, while more than one-third of Canadians say they have spent more than a year searching for one.
Meanwhile, fewer medical school graduates are choosing to pursue a career in family medicine.
"But I do really feel that if we want a better system, we have to get to the people who are using the system to hear what it is that they want," Kiran said.
"That new system needs to be designed based on the needs, the values, the preferences, the priorities of people who are using the system, so that's everyday Canadians."
Watch the full interview with Dr. Tara Kiran at the top of the article. With files from Â鶹´«Ã½ Toronto Multi-Platform Writer Katherine DeClerq and CTVNews.ca Writer Alexandra Mae Jones
