A Canadian research team is calling on Albertans to take part in a national survey about primary care.
The “OurCare” initiative surveyed and met with nearly 10,000 Canadians between 2022 and 2024 and found widespread dissatisfaction with the state of primary care.
It estimated more than one in five Canadian adults didn’t have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner and issued a 72-page report last year, outlining a number of primary care standards it described as a blueprint for system transformation.
Now the group is conducting another survey to find out how the experience of Canadians has changed and compares to those priorities.
“We know that access to primary care is an important issue for each and every person in Canada,” said Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital and the founder of OurCare.
According to Kiran, they didn’t hear from as many Albertans as they’d hoped to the first time around.
“But our first survey did find that the province or territory you live in, that was really the major determinant of primary care access,” she said.
“So this time … we want to get as many responses as possible from each and every province and territory. So people in Alberta can say ‘yeah this is what primary care in Alberta looks like,’ so that you can use this data to talk to policy makers and health-care leaders to try and improve the system.”
The work will also allow people to see how Alberta compares to other provinces and territories, according to Kiran.
Some of the key questions include whether or not people have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, whether they have timely access and if not, where they are able to get care, she said.
“Are you able to get care in the language…that you feel most comfortable communicating in. Are you able to actually be involved in shaping your care in your local clinic or region? These are all things that people told us were important to them and that we’re asking about in this survey,” said Kiran.
“I’m genuinely interested to understand how the problem has changed over the last two and a half years.”
Calgary-based family physician Dr. Janet Reynolds is also hoping Albertans will take part.
“We’re continuing fighting to do more with less in primary care,” said Reynolds, who practices at Crowfoot Village Family Practice and is a member of the OurCare survey advisory committee.
“I think the opportunity for the public to inform the next transition in such a large way is really critical”
Reynolds said the province-to-province comparison will offer important insights and hearing from the public is key.
“This feels like the first time we’re actually truly engaging with the public to get more meaningful input to inform whatever reform is happening in the moment.”
The province has made a number of reforms it says are designed to address access problems, including launching a new pay model for both doctors and nurse practitioners.
And as part of the Alberta government’s complete overhaul of the health system, a new agency overseeing the delivery of primary care health services (Primary Care Alberta) became operational earlier this year.
The OurCare survey is open until July 30.
