What the OurCare report tells us, and what it can’t

Canada’s largest primary-care survey reports that more people now have access to a provider. The estimated number of adults without primary care fell from roughly 6.5 million in 2022 to 5.9 million today.

It’s a meaningful shift. 
But it’s not the whole story.

The report analyzed more than 16,000 responses, and is one of the clearest snapshots we have into the state of primary care.

There is progress in these numbers. And limits to what they can show.
 

What’s missing: provincial realities

Primary-care access across Canada has never been uniform.

In the 2022 survey, provincial differences were stark:
Ontario reported relatively strong attachment; Quebec, Atlantic provinces, and B.C. were struggling; the territories weren’t measured at all.

This year, that variation is still important — arguably more than the national numbers. But the provincial and territorial results aren’t included in the 2025 release.

Dr. Tara Kiran, physician and researcher at St. Michael’s Hopsital and the University of Toronto, and OurCare’s Principal Investigator, spoke with CHW​ about the new report.

Kiran said the province-by-province breakdown won’t be published until early 2026. “We are not releasing the provincial–territorial results until early 2026,” she said, noting that territorial data was still being collected when the report was finalized.

Without provincial detail, it isn’t possible to know where access actually improved or where inequities widened. With this data not yet released, the most consequential question in primary care is left​ unanswered:

Which jurisdictions are driving Canada’s progress, and which are holding it back?
 

Where the system is slipping

Some deeper numbers capture how Canadians actually experienced primary care in 2025.

Only 28% of respondents said they were satisfied with how primary care is working.

And just 22% said they knew what to do if something goes wrong with their care.

More people have a point of contact, but it isn’t translating to system confidence.

For those with a primary provider, only 37% said they could get seen promptly for an urgent problem.

“Even those people who do have primary care still struggle with accessing care when they need it,” Kiran said. “Especially when they have an urgent issue or need help after hours.”

Timely access isn't a luxury metric.

A recent study of nearly ten million patients in Ontario, co-authored by Kiran, showed that over 12% live more than 30km away from their family physician. These patients had lower cancer screening rates and higher non-urgent emergency department use.
 

Paying to bridge access gaps

One number shows very clearly how some people are navigating today’s fractured systems.

Among respondents without a family doctor or nurse practitioner, 11% said they paid out of pocket for care in the past year. Most of these payments were for appointments and consultations.
 

How definitions shift numbers

This year’s upgraded survey methods​ add necessary nuance to the story around improved access.

In 2025, anyone who said they​ did not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner was asked a new follow-up question: whether they had a regular place of care, such as a community health centre or nurse practitioner-led clinic.

If people reported receiving ongoing care at one of these or other qualifying sites, they were reclassified as having access. This reclassification was not modeled or applied to the 2022 figures.

The report attributes 1.4% — more than a third of the national increase — to this definitional change alone.

While access has improved numerically, the rise from 77% to 81% is only two points above the upper bound of 2022’s confidence interval.

This doesn’t invalidate the survey. But it does make a 2022–2025 comparison statistically messy.

Access is up. System performance isn’t.