Thousands of Canadians Logged 100-Plus Doctor Visits Annually: Report

Thousands of Canadians are visiting their family doctors more than 100 times a year, including one Quebec patient who logged 362 appointments in 2024, according to a newly released report.

Think tank SecondStreet.org released a policy brief this week that analyzes government data acquired via the Freedom of Information Act, focusing on patients who had the highest number of appointments with a general practitioner within a single year.

The data from 2024 showed that thousands of patients in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec are visiting their family physicians more than 50 times each year.

Quebec and Alberta also recorded more than 1,000 patients who attended at least 100 appointments in 2024.

“We saw many cases where patients had hundreds of appointments in a single year,” said SecondStreet.org President and report author Colin Craig. “Some of these are likely legitimate cases where patients have unique health needs, but there are likely cases of abuse too.”

Alberta

Alberta recorded the highest number of patients exhibiting extraordinarily high usage, the study found. Government statistics indicated that 25,767 Alberta residents had more than 50 appointments with a general practitioner in 2024, while 9,331 individuals surpassed the 100-visit mark.

While Alberta recorded the highest number of patients who attended over 50 and over 100 appointments in a single year, Craig said the province probably employed a broader definition of “appointments” compared to other provinces.

Quebec

There were 11,586 individuals in Quebec with more than 50 appointments and 1,611 residents who exceeded 100 appointments, according to the data.

The province also had some of the highest individual usage rates in the country. Its top 10 patients made between 295 and 362 trips to the doctor in just one year. The authors noted that a patient could have had more than one visit on the same day if they saw multiple doctors.

“As a group, these numbers were the highest in Canada,” Craig said. “However, each province appears to use a slightly different definition of an ‘appointment’ with a general practitioner, making it difficult to compare data among provinces.

British Columbia

B.C. had 14,497 people who saw their doctor more than 50 times in 2024 and 241 patients with more than 100 visits. The patient who recorded the most visits in British Columbia was seen 209 times by a general practitioner, the report said.

The frequency with which the top 10 users visited a doctor ranged from 147 to 209 visits. The data includes those who sought care from general practice physicians and those working in anesthesia and emergency medicine, but does not cover unscheduled visits to hospital emergency rooms or surgeries.

Ontario

Ontario had 2,269 residents who logged in excess of 50 appointments and 184 who scheduled more than 100, the report said. Ontario’s “top 10” patients had between 218 and 347 visits in 2024, the second-highest grouping in Canada.

Craig acknowledged that the data might be influenced by padded hours, however. The report noted a recent auditor’s report in Ontario that suggested the province faced abuse by doctors related to inflated billing. This included some practitioners who billed the government for more than 24 hours in a single day, multiple times each year.

The Prairies

Manitoba had 560 patients who scheduled more than 50 appointments and 40 who exceeded 100. The top 10 users had between 188 to 252 appointments in 2024, according to the study.

Saskatchewan was low by comparison. Thirty-one patients had between 51-100 appointments and only one patient had exceeded that.

Atlantic Canada

New Brunswick emerged as the Atlantic province with the greatest number of residents—634— with more than 50 appointments. It also had 61 who had at least 100 and the frequency with which the top 10 users had an appointment with a general practitioner ranged from 136 to 182 appointments, the study found.

There were 153 patients in Newfoundland and Labrador who attended at least 50 appointments and three had more than 100 appointments. The top 10 users visited their doctor between 81 and 142 times.

In Nova Scotia, there were 91 patients who attended more than 50 appointments, with one individual exceeding 100 appointments. Craig said the frequency of visits to a general practitioner among the top 10 users varied from 68 to 123.

Prince Edward Island recorded 91 patients who had between 50 and 99 appointments. The frequency of appointments for the top 10 users with a GP varied from 49 to 78 appointments.

The findings come as some 5.9 million Canadians find themselves without a family doctor, and numerous individuals face challenges in securing prompt appointments for significant health issues.

“Considering millions of Canadians don’t have a family doctor, addressing abuse could help improve access,” Craig said.

“Provincial governments would be wise to examine their billing systems more closely and consider policy options to curb excessive demand. If abuse is identified and addressed, then the system will have more resources to help patients with legitimate health problems.”