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The Urgent Need for a Centralized Referral System in Ontario
Enabling Family Physicians with the Right Technology Will Help Patients Receive Faster Care
Dr. Nicole Desmarais has seen the tragic consequences that can result from the lack of an effective referral system, as she tries tirelessly every day to connect her patients to the specialized care they need.
The sole family physician in Hanmer, a small town in Greater Sudbury, Dr. Desmarais has had patients with life-threatening illnesses waiting for months – their condition worsening – while she searches, unsuccessfully, for the specialized care her patient needs.
With 25 years of experience in the community, Dr. Desmarais has seen access to specialists get progressively worse, leading to her patients’ health deteriorating while they wait. She says, “as a family physician practicing in Northern Ontario, it is deeply troubling to witness daily the consequences of my patients’ delayed access to the specialized care they urgently need.”
A centralized referral system would help by making it easier to connect patients to speciality and surgical care, decreasing wait times and improving the patient experience. It would also help to reduce some of the administrative burden family physicians are facing.
Currently, family physicians send referrals to specialists without knowing if they are the right person to treat their patient or how long their patient will have to wait. If that specialist has a long waitlist or is on leave, the referral may not receive a response for weeks or months— or it goes unanswered altogether.
According to Dr. Desmarais, she has sent as many as 11 referrals, waiting for each individual response before sending another, to connect one patient with specialist care. The need for multiple referrals for the same issue is common and, as a result, family physicians are spending too much time on paperwork — time that would be better spent with patients.
A centralized referral system would make it easier for family physicians to know which specialists are accepting patients – and family doctors would stop wasting time going back and forth trying to refer their patients.
The OCFP is calling for every Ontarian to have access to a family doctor working with a team, enabled by the right technology.
Dr. Desmarais believes that adoption of a centralized referral system is crucial to being able to help her patients, but it is also key to creating equitable access to care for all Ontarians.