Quebec continues to increase its medical workforce, since 280 more doctors have been added to the health network over the past year, according to the most recent data from the College of Physicians (CMQ) published Thursday morning.
As of December 31, 2023, the order’s roll included 26,001 physicians registered across the province. Among active doctors, 47% are family doctors and 51.4% are specialist doctors. Approximately 1.5% hold a permit issued under the Quebec-France agreement.
The data also shows that around a hundred more doctors than in 2022 are inactive, that is to say they are on sick leave, sabbatical year, parental leave, retired or even they are temporarily left outside Quebec to do specialized training. In total, 11.9% of doctors were inactive in 2023.
Virtually all regions of Quebec have made workforce gains, Montreal being the one with the most with 33 new family doctors and 63 specialist doctors. Quebec comes in second place with 38 more doctors, followed by the Laurentians with the addition of 29 doctors.
Furthermore, 457 doctors practice outside Quebec, a number which has remained stable.
Four regions lost family doctors in 2023. Lanaudière is the one which saw the most of these professionals desert with eight fewer family doctors. Four family doctors left Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean lost three and Centre-du-Québec two.
On the other hand, there are still a few more women in the profession, representing 55% of active doctors. This trend is expected to continue since 56% of resident doctors are women and the proportion reaches 66% among medical students.
CMQ data also indicates that the vast majority (85.7%) of doctors are qualified from Quebec, a small portion (3.6%) comes from elsewhere in Canada and 0.4% from the United States. About one in ten doctors graduated from another country.
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