Provincial and territorial governments paid out a total of $24.1 billion to physicians in 2013-2014, a nearly six-per-cent increase from the year before, according to the latest data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
While payments to physicians varied across the country, Canadian doctors’ average earnings before expenses were nearly $336,000 last year, according to CIHI. That’s a 2.4-per-cent increase from the previous year.
The average annual clinical payment per physician ranged from $263,000 in Nova Scotia to $368,000 in Ontario.
The latest figures were released amid an ongoing dispute between Ontario physicians and the provincial government over another looming fee cut.
On Oct. 1, Ontario doctors will see their fees cut by 1.3 per cent. In January, their fees were cut 2.6 per cent.
The doctors have been protesting on social media using the hashtag #oncall4ON, posting photos of themselves working at all hours to treat patients.
CIHI data also shows that the number of doctors working in Canada has been rising steadily over the last decade, hitting almost 80,000 in 2014.
“Over the last 8 years, the physician workforce has grown rapidly, similar to the high growth rates we saw through most of the 1980s,” Geoff Ballinger, CIHI’s manager of physician information, said in a news release.
He added that the trend is “likely to continue for the next few years,” based on current levels of medical school enrolment across the country.
Alberta and Saskatchewan saw the highest increase in doctors – 20 per cent — over the last five years. Ontario, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island had the lowest increases during the same time period, ranging between 10 and 11 per cent.
CIHI also noted that the number of female doctors has been rapidly increasing in recent years. Last year, 40 per cent of Canadian doctors were women. That was especially evident in family medicine, where 44 per cent of doctors were women in 2014.
Overall, there were 224 physicians per 100,000 people in Canada in 2014.
Read the full post in CTV News Health
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