It’s great to have a family doctor; it’s even better to get a quick appointment

Governments love a good statistic. Especially the kind that can be packaged neatly into a news release and used to suggest progress is being made.

So it’s not surprising the Manitoba government was quick to highlight new survey results showing this province leads the country in access to family doctors or other forms of primary care.

According to a recent OurCare national survey led by University of Toronto researchers, 88.8 per cent of Manitobans report having a family doctor, nurse practitioner or regular primary-care setting. That’s well above the national average of 82.8 per cent.

On the surface, that sounds like good news. And it is.

After years of stories about doctor shortages and long wait times, having nearly nine in 10 Manitobans connected to some form of primary care is nothing to scoff at.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara certainly didn’t.

“It’s encouraging to see that nearly 89 per cent of Manitobans report having a regular primary care provider but our goal is 100 per cent,” Asagwara said in a government news release Thursday.

The province also highlighted other positive developments. It says it has hired 285 net new doctors since 2023, reversing years of attrition. In Winnipeg, 99 per cent of residents who sign up for a family doctor are reportedly matched with one within 25 days, up from 79 per cent when the NDP took office.

Those numbers suggest the government’s efforts to rebuild primary care — through physician recruitment, training and expanded clinics — are starting to have an effect.

But there’s a catch.

Actually, there are a couple of them.

Because while Manitoba may rank near the top when it comes to having a primary-care provider, the OurCare survey also shows the province falls well behind when it comes to actually accessing that care when people need it.

That’s a pretty important distinction.

The part of the survey the government didn’t highlight in its news release paints a very different picture.

Among Manitobans who do have a primary-care provider, only 28.5 per cent said they could get a same-day or next-day appointment for urgent medical issues.

That’s well below the national average of 37.5 per cent.

In Ontario, which topped the list, 44.6 per cent of respondents said they could get timely urgent care from their provider.

In other words, Manitobans may have a doctor, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can see that physician quickly when something suddenly goes wrong.

The numbers are even more stark when it comes to after-hours care.

Only 25.7 per cent of Manitobans reported having access to their primary care for urgent issues outside the standard Monday-to-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. window.

Again, that’s below the national average of 31.2 per cent.

To be fair, those numbers aren’t particularly impressive across the country. Timely and after-hours access to primary care is a national problem.

But Manitoba sits among the lower-performing provinces in both categories.

That matters because access to primary care isn’t just about whether you technically have a doctor. It’s about whether you can actually get medical help when you need it.

If you wake up with a severe infection, a sudden illness or a worrying symptom, waiting a week or two for an appointment isn’t much help.

The whole point of having a family doctor or nurse practitioner is to deal with health problems early, quickly and outside the hospital system.

If patients can’t get in quickly, that safety valve doesn’t work very well.

None of this means the province’s progress on recruiting physicians or connecting people to providers should be dismissed. If Manitoba truly has added 285 net new doctors and significantly reduced the number of people without a provider, that’s an important step.

The OurCare survey itself highlights a major national problem: nearly 5.8 million Canadian adults still lack access to primary care. In Manitoba alone, about 130,000 people fall into that category, according to the study.

A system where patients technically have a doctor but can’t get a timely appointment for urgent issues isn’t functioning the way primary care is supposed to.

The Manitoba government says it has expanded extended-hours clinics to provide evening and weekend access for non-emergency concerns. That’s a step in the right direction.

But the survey suggests there’s still a long way to go before most Manitobans can rely on timely primary care and access outside of regular business hours.

That’s the real test of accessibility.

Having a family doctor is important. Being able to see them when you’re sick is even more important.

The government deserves some credit if it has begun reversing the erosion of primary care that took place over many years.

But the job isn’t finished simply because a survey shows Manitoba leads the country in the percentage of people who have a family doctor, nurse practitioner or access to a primary care setting.

Until more patients can get same-day appointments and reliable care after hours, many Manitobans will still find themselves without reliable primary care services.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca