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FTEs complement headcounts by providing a common comparison measure, reflecting the hours worked. A full-time provider has an FTE of 1.0 (or higher), while a part-time provider has an FTE below 1.0. Over the last 10 years, average FTEs per health care provider ranged from 0.6 to 0.95. Family physicians, pharmacists and nurse practitioners (NPs) had the highest average FTEs, consistently above 0.8 per provider. For nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and mental health workers, average FTEs were equal to or below 0.8 per provider. This means that, on average, a greater proportion of family physicians, pharmacists and NPs were likely working full time or close to full time compared with other professionals, for whom part-time work may be more common.

While FTE measures may help estimate workforce capacity, there are multiple definitions of FTEs available in health systems (i.e., differing benchmarks of full-time hours and compensation) and some providers may work in multiple settings. As more data and consistent, comparable definitions of full-time work become available, further assessment and understanding of work capacity across providers and settings will be possible. 

Average provider FTEs ranged from 0.6 to 0.95 over the past decade; stable among family physicians

Notes 
— Data is unavailable, does not exist or is suppressed due to data quality issues.
Family physician data excludes Quebec, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Family physicians include those practising in general practice, family practice, community medicine and public health, and palliative care medicine.
The approach to estimating FTE for family physicians is based on payment data and is presented by fiscal year; for other professionals, an FTE is defined as 37.5 hours per week and is presented by calendar year. 

Sources
National Physician Database, Canadian Institute for ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Information.
Custom tabulation based on Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.

Measuring the volume of patients seen by providers can help assess their workload and determine staffing needs. In 2022, family physicians saw 316 fewer patients on average than 10 years previous, about an 18% decrease (from 1,746.1 in 2013 to 1,429.6 in 2022).  Over the same period, average family physician FTEs per provider remained stable.

To further understand the decrease in the average number of patients seen by family physicians, more data and analyses are needed to understand how patient load is managed and distributed among providers. Currently, there is very limited data on the number of patients seen by other primary care providers and by health teams as a collective and on whether providers work in multidisciplinary teams.

The number of patients seen can be influenced by numerous factors, including the clinical complexity and comorbidities of patients; changes in models of care, including the increase in team-based care; changes in the availability of providers over time and throughout their career; and changes in practice patterns.Reference1

Family physicians have seen fewer patients over the past decade

Notes
* Denotes statistical significance (p<0.025) using the Mann-Kendall trend test.
Data on family physicians is presented by fiscal year.
Data excludes Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Family physicians include those practising in general practice, family practice, community medicine and public health, and palliative care medicine.

Source
National Physician Database, Canadian Institute for ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Information.

Pharmacists have been able to prescribe medications to treat minor ailments in some jurisdictions since 2007.Reference2 In Saskatchewan, pharmacists received prescribing authority in 2011, followed by British Columbia and Ontario in 2023 as a result of recent policy changes to increase access to primary care.Reference3 This section takes an early look at the uptake of minor ailment prescribing by pharmacists and trends in the number of patients seen by family physicians for these minor ailments in jurisdictions with available data (Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia).

Emerging data suggests that the uptake of minor ailment prescribing by pharmacists varies by minor ailment. Based on early trends, the largest uptake has been for cold sores (herpes labialis), pink eye (conjunctivitis) and uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs).

In Ontario, the number of patients prescribed treatment for cold sores (n = 42,815) by a pharmacist in 2023 was comparable with the number treated by a family physician in the previous year (n = 42,619). In contrast, while there was significant uptake in prescribing for pink eye by pharmacists (n = 137,023), the uptake was only 67% of the number treated by a family physician (n = 204,722) over the same period. In Saskatchewan, the number of patients prescribed treatment by a pharmacist for UTIs gradually increased between 2019 and 2023. However, many more patients continued to be treated by a family physician for UTIs, potentially reflecting the broader range of UTIs that family physicians can treat.

The uptake of pharmacist prescribing programs may suggest improved access to primary care for patients. There is a need to continue monitoring these trends and to analyze patient health outcomes. In addition, understanding the factors that influence which providers patients choose for treatment of minor ailments, especially as they may interact with multiple providers for the same ailments throughout their care journey, is warranted. 

Uptake of minor ailment prescribing varied by minor ailment; largest for UTIs, pink eye and cold sores

Notes
— Data is unavailable, does not exist or is suppressed due to data quality issues. 
Physician practice patterns for minor ailments were identified using ICD-9 codes attached to billings submitted to a provincial/territorial health insurance program. Due to jurisdictional differences in ICD-9 reporting, the number of patients seen for contraceptive management and cold sores may be overstated.
The pharmacist prescribing program in British Columbia launched in June 2023; data presented for this jurisdiction covers only 6 months.
Pharmacist prescribing patterns for minor ailments were identified through drug identification numbers (DINs) assigned by ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Canada or pseudo-drug identification numbers (PDINs) attached to filled prescriptions.

Sources
National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System and National Physician Database, Canadian Institute for ºìÁì½í¹Ï±¨ Information.

• National Physician Database Data Release, 2022–2023 — Methodology Notes
• National Physician Database metadata
• National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System metadata