Rural family physicians tend to be more open to accepting new patients than urban doctors, according to a report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The reason is simple, medicine in the city is quite a world apart from the medicine that goes on in the country, says Dr. Peter Hutten-Czapski, who works with the Society of Rural Physicians Canada.
"In a small town everyone is your neighbour, while the city is full of strangers. In the city its someone else's problem, in a town you know the other doctors and that there is nobody else to send the patient to," he said.
The study also found doctors trained internationally were 4.3 times more likely to be accepting new patients than their colleagues who graduated in Canada.
There is higher percent of international medical graduates in Northern British Columbia, meaning this statistic may be slightly skewed said Dr. David Snadden, the associate dean of the Northern Medical Program at UNBC.
"In northern B.C. for example, there is a little over 50 per cent of doctors trained outside of Canada. If it wasn't for international medical graduates, we would be faced with a huge gap in services," he said.
Snadden said you must also consider the rate of turnover, which could be greater in rural areas during hard economic times.
What's more interesting, he said, was solo practices were less likely to be accepting new patients than group practices.
"If you're working in a group you can share resources and help each other out more. The new generation of doctors tend to feel more comfortable in this environment as well," Snadden said.
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