Primary care for all: lessons for Canada from peer countries with high primary care attachment

doi: 10.1503/cmaj.221824 Health systems with strong primary care have better out- comes, lower costs and better equity.1 Yet, even at the outset Key points of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 17% of people in Canada • Canada spends less of its total health budget on primary care reported not having a regular primary care clinician.2 At the than the average among Organisation for Economic Co- same time. [...] Data on physician totals from the World Health Organization (WHO).19 The number of GPs per 10 000 people was calculated by dividing the total number of GPs retrieved from the WHO20 by the country’s total population, retrieved from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.11 centres, occupational clinics are available to serve working has capacity. [...] Wait times to see a Conclusion specialist in Canada are noted to be especially high, compared with other countries.59 Primary care is the front door of the health care system, yet almost 1 in 5  people living in Canada did not have a primary System organization care clinician at the outset of the pandemic, and the situation is Local or provincial and territorial governments could move to a poised. [...] A vision relational continuity and timely access for nonurgent for primary health care in the 21st century: towards universal health coverage care — but such trade-offs may be better than the status quo of and the Sustainable Development Goals. [...] Funding: Tara Kiran and Richard Glazier are supported as clinician scientists by the Affiliations: Temerty Faculty of Medicine Contributors: Richard Glazier and Tara Department of Family and Community Medi- (Shahaed), and Department of Family and Kiran conceived of the study.