How To Find A Family Doctor
Posted June 22, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Finding a family doctor has become increasingly difficult in recent years, as many graduating from medical school choose to specialize or move to the United States to practice.
And as a report released Thursday indicated, only about 10 per cent of general practitioners in Ontario are taking on new patients – which is bad news for anyone who needs one.
But there is hope and there are resources for those desperately in search of a doc. Here are the places to contact if you and your family are looking for a physician:
Perhaps the easiest way to find a doctor is to contact the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. They have an online database of all the province’s doctors and it’s searchable by specialty, doctor’s name, city or postal code.
For information about the College’s Find a Doctor Service call 416-967-2626 or click here.
You can also contact the College of Family Physicians by visiting their website or calling 416-867-9646.
Another option is to try visiting a teaching hospital’s family medicine unit. Among the teaching hospitals in Toronto: Mount Sinai, St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s.
You may have to see a resident who’s under the supervision of a staff doctor, but the advantage is you’ll have easy access to the facility’s advanced care services.
Contact information for teaching hospital family medicine units associated with the University of Toronto’s family medicine residency program and/or general family medicine contact information:
416-586-4800 ext. 5068
The Toronto Hospital Western Division
416-603-2581
416-469-6363
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
416-431-8200 ext. 8201
Finally, you can try calling your local hospital to see if they can recommend a family doctor in the community taking new patients. For a list of all the hospitals in Ontario, click here.
