Nearly 10,000 Pickering residents who currently do not have a family doctor could soon be connected to primary care through a new provincial funding initiative aimed at addressing the doctor shortage across Ontario and the Durham Region specifically.
The province announced its Primary Care Action Plan, which funds 124 primary care teams across Ontario expected to connect another 500,000 patients to primary care. Each team has established a targeted plan to attach a high proportion of unattached people in their community, including those who have been waiting on the Health Care Connect waitlist for months or even years without access to consistent medical care.
In January 2026, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province is on track to meet its goal of connecting all residents to primary care within the next four years. The comprehensive plan includes funding new primary care teams across the province, opening new seats at Ontario medical schools, and speeding up the licensing process for internationally trained and out-of-province doctors who want to practise in Ontario communities.
For Pickering and the broader Durham Region, the initiative could not come soon enough. Ministry of Health data estimate that approximately 66,000 people in Durham Region have no family physician at all, while local data suggests at least another 100,000 Durham residents are attached to a physician outside the region, forcing them to travel significant distances for basic medical care, routine checkups, and preventive health screenings.
A recent report from the City of Oshawa noted that despite the provincial initiatives, it remains uncertain whether the legislation has translated into measurable improvements for residents on the ground, as municipalities have had difficulty breaking data down on a city-by-city basis to effectively track progress over time and determine which neighbourhoods are most underserved.
In 2024, Durham Region municipalities entered a memorandum of understanding to create a Durham-wide family physician recruitment program. The collaborative program aims to attract and retain family medicine trainees and practising physicians to the eastern GTA region, and has funded the Durham Ontario Health Team to hire a full-time permanent family physician recruiter through the Docs for Durham initiative.
A 2025 report from the Durham Physician Recruitment Program highlighted meaningful progress, noting that 20 new medical students joined the third cohort of the Queen’s Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program based in Durham. The program has also expanded outreach at national and international recruitment events and strengthened partnerships with Durham’s healthcare institutions, community clinics, and primary care networks to create a seamless transition for new medical recruits arriving in the region.
However, the challenge remains significant and the need continues to grow. Each year, approximately 1,500 babies born in Durham hospitals leave without a primary care physician attached to their family, underscoring the urgency of connecting more residents to family doctors across all Durham Region communities including Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington, Uxbridge, Brock, and Scugog.
Residents who are currently without a family doctor are encouraged to register with Health Care Connect as soon as possible to be matched with an available physician in their area as new primary care teams come online throughout 2026 and into 2027, bringing much-needed relief to one of Ontario’s fastest-growing regions.
