Ontario’s Doctors, We Are People Too

Thank you for finding your way this week to The Doctor Is In.  Last week, I introduced this blog as a channel of communication to share the important issues facing doctors and patients in Ontario.  The blog will also be about me sharing who I am, as a president, as a physician and as a person.  To combine these two priorities, today’s post is going to focus on physician wellness. Not as an abstract concept we all strive towards, but instead as a real issue that I want to tackle while I am the president of the Ontario Medical Association’s (OMA) over 50 000 members.

As a doctor, I have the privilege of working with my patients to improve their health and quality of life.  The work we do as physicians is incredibly important and as a profession we feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to help our patients on a day-to-day basis. Our job is to help people on what can be the worst days of their lives and to try and navigate a fragmented healthcare system to ensure patients do not fall through the cracks.  

And this takes its toll.  Across Canada, almost 50% of doctors are experiencing not just burnout, but high levels of burnout [1].  We face challenging, sometimes traumatic situations in our job and we are asked to consider our patients’ wellbeing above our own.  This is an unsustainable model.  While it is a privilege to be physicians, we cannot be doctors first.  We must be human first.

Doctors live with struggles and challenges that impact us on a daily basis. We experience illness and health the same way other people do, including mental health concerns.  And it can be difficult to open up about our experiences because we often feel held to a different standard than our patients.  An expectation to provide high quality care is of course always the goal, but we cannot allow it to move beyond this to a double standard where doctors cannot express concerns about our wellness due to stigma and fear.

As OMA president, I am determined to fight the stigma surrounding physician wellness.  And part of that fight is to step forward and lead by example.  I cannot ask doctors around Ontario to make themselves a priority and reach out for help if they are struggling if I am not willing to share my own experience.  

I live with an anxiety disorder.  It is something I have experienced most of my life but for which I sought treatment during my medical training.  

I am fortunate to have resources that allow me to treat my symptoms effectively.  I want this for every person in Ontario experiencing a mental health challenge, and I especially want our physicians in Ontario to know that it is shows strength, not weakness, when you reach out for help and share what you are going through.  

As members of the OMA, you have access to the Physician Health Program (PHP), which provides confidential, and even anonymous services to doctors throughout the province.  The team will spend time understanding your needs and connect you to resources, programming, and other services that are uniquely tailored to physician needs. The PHP supports learners and physicians no matter their stage of life or career.  I have benefited from the PHP and recommend it whole heartedly to any doctor or learner who is interested in supporting their wellness.

Last week, in my first blog post, I asked us, the doctors of Ontario, to commit to ourselves the same way we commit to our patients.  This week, I will build on this request.  Let us ensure that with every piece of advocacy we fight for we are moving towards a more sustainable healthcare system.  One which supports the wellness not just of Ontario’s patients, but of Ontario’s physicians.  Without caring for the caregivers, our system will never flourish.

[1] CMA 2025 National Physician Health Survey