Determinants of Waiting Time for a Routine Family Physician Consultation in Southwestern Ontario Facteurs déterminants du temps d’attente pour consulter un médecin de famille dans le sud-ouest de l’Ontario

Waiting times are a reality in Canada’s publicly financed single-payer healthcare system. While there are ample data about waiting times for specialized investigations and procedures, few data exist about waiting times to see family physicians, and determinants of this wait. We analyzed data from a survey of 731 family physicians in southwestern Ontario to understand physicianand practice-level determinants of waiting time. Physician gender, usual number of patients seen per week, involvement in teaching and population served were the key determinants of physician-reported waiting time.