'The demands on our time are very, very high': Canadian Medical Association president on physician burnout

Physicians and researchers from across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are in Halifax this week for the International Conference on Physician Health.

The three-day scientific conference begins Thursday at the Halifax Convention Centre and will focus on mitigating burnout and promoting wellbeing for doctors.          

Dr. Joss Reimer, the president of the Canadian Medical Association, says physician burnout is “absolutely getting worse” over time.

“What we’re hearing from physicians is that the system had many cracks, even before COVID, and people were struggling to be able to make it through and take care of the patients and do everything that Canadians deserve when it comes to receiving health care,” she said during an interview on CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

“But with COVID and with those cracks not being addressed we now have gaping wounds in our health system and that is something that physicians are feeling because we went into health care wanting to help people and when we can’t do what we’re trained to do, that’s a big part of what’s leading to burnout.”

Reimer said there are “many things” that add to physician burnout, one being a shortage of health-care providers.

“The demands on our time are very, very high. And when Canadians don’t have access to primary care, for example, which six-and-a-half million people don’t in Canada, they end up needing all other parts of the health-care system, so they’re going to the emergency rooms to get primary care or they’re going to the emergency room with conditions that could have been prevented but are now really complex and needing complex care,” she said.

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Reimer also cited the increasing administrative burden physicians face as a cause of their burnout.

“That doesn’t sound like something that might cause burnout, but when you’re seeing that physicians are spending somewhere between 10-to-19 hours a week doing paperwork, a lot of it being unnecessary or redundant paperwork,” she said.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Improving well-being through the power of connections.” 

Reimer said it’s important for physicians to communicate with each other and make sure they have support systems in place.

“Especially for those physicians who function in solitary practices, making sure that we’re building teams so that we have better health care that’s provided for not only the patients but even for the team members so that we have support amongst each other,” she said.

Despite there being a shortage of doctors in Canada, Reimer says it is one of “most rewarding careers” to get into.

“When you’re able to be there for somebody through what’s often one of the worst days of their life and you’re able to help them through that, there’s nothing that compares to being able to be that support person and help people through these really difficult times, and so we want our physicians to be able to continue to do that work and that’s why we want to change the systems to better support physicians,” she said.

Reimer added that one of the topics physicians are excited to discuss over the next three days, and see the implications of in the field, is artificial intelligence.

“We know it’s not going to replace physicians, but what it might do is have physicians who use AI replace physicians who don’t, so that’s one new topic that we’re excited to hear about,” she said.

“But some of the basics, like connecting with each other, connecting with technology, connecting with other health-care workers – those are the standards that we know we’re building research (on) and are going to have an impact on physician wellness.”

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