Improving the Quality and Capacity of Canada’s Health Services: Primary Care Physician Perspectives Amélioration de la qualité et de la capacité des services de santé du Canada : points de vue des médecins de premier recours

Objective: This study set out to identify the perspectives of family physicians (FP/ GPs) on the quality and capacity of the services they provide and of the system in which they work, to assess their responsiveness to potential changes and to determine their suggestions for future directions to enhance primary care services. Methods: Thematic results from prior focus groups with FP/GPs provided direction for a questionnaire sent to practitioners in the urban study area. Seventy-four questions, most using a five-point Likert scale, were grouped into 10 sections: physician issues (based on themes from the focus groups), access to specialist services, workload, scope of practice, primary care physician networks, interdisciplinary collaborative practice, complexities and challenges of family practice, future directions, comments and demographics. Results: Five hundred and eighty-three FP/GPs were surveyed, and 300 responses (52%) were analyzed for frequencies and comparisons using SPSS. In addition to informative responses to the various survey sections noted above, specific physician suggestions for future directions to improve quality and capacity were identified. These included access to specialists/consultants, teamwork/collaborative practice, access to diagnostics, electronic records/technology, time and remuneration. Conclusions: The identified suggestions by FP/GPs to enhance the quality and capacity of health services contribute to a framework for policy development at national, provincial/territorial and regional levels and can be used as a reference point for the progress of primary care reform initiatives. Résumé Objectif : L’étude vise à déterminer le point de vue des médecins de famille (MF/MG) sur la qualité et la capacité des services qu’ils offrent et sur le système dans lequel ils travaillent, à évaluer leur souplesse face aux changements potentiels et à déterminer leurs suggestions sur les orientations futures en vue d’améliorer les services de soins primaires. Méthodes : Les résultats thématiques découlant de groupes de travail antérieurs avec les MF/MG ont déterminé l’orientation du questionnaire envoyé aux praticiens de David G. Moores et al.