Ontarians are Concerned About Future of Their Health Care System

Toronto, Ontario, October 16, 2024 — An Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of the Ontario Medical Association shows a high level of concern about the provincial health care system and a strong desire for the provincial government to ensure that every Ontario resident has access to a family doctor.

Ontarians are concerned about their health care system and are looking for their provincial government to act.
Nine-in-ten (89%) Ontario residents say they “are concerned about the future of Ontario’s health-care system”. More than eight-in-ten also “believe the provincial government is responsible for Ontario’s health care crisis” (82%) and “believe the government of Ontario should be making health care its top priority” (85%). Most (81%) add “in the next election, they will vote for the political party that makes health care a top priority”.

Ontarians stress the importance of ensuring everyone has access to a family doctor.
Nine-in-ten (91%) Ontario residents “believe the government of Ontario should make it a priority that every Ontarian has access to a family doctor”. This is at least in part because nine-in-ten (90%) say they “believe that having a family doctor makes it easier to access care in the other parts of the health care system”.

Among those without a family doctor, nearly eight-in-ten (78%) agree that “it has been difficult to get access to the health care services I need because I don’t have a family doctor” and nearly six-in-ten (58%) agree that their “health has been negatively impacted by not having a family doctor”.

Other Health Care Topics
Other survey findings for Ontarians include:

•    Nine-in-ten (90%) residents say they “are concerned that without adequate funding we will see more doctors leave Ontario for better opportunities in other provinces or in the United States”.

•    Nine-in-ten (89%) residents agree that “to give more Ontarians access to primary care, the province should focus on creating more team based primary care where doctors are supported by allied health”.

•    More than eight-in-ten (84%) residents agree that “wait times for surgeries/specialist appointments/ MRIs are getting worse”.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted August 16-19, 2024, on behalf of the Ontario Medical Association. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Ontarians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Ontario population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online surveys is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the survey is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Ontarians aged 18+ been surveyed. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this Factum, please contact:
Sean Simpson 
Senior Vice President, Canada, Public Affairs 
[email protected]

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