One Quebecer recorded 362 appointments with a family doctor in 2024 — the most in the entire country, according to think tank SecondStreet.org, which examines how government policies affect Canadians’ lives.
The revelation comes after the organization made a freedom of information (FOI) request with the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).
“The numbers from Quebec are astronomically high compared with data from other parts of the country,” said SecondStreet.org president Colin Craig.
“The Quebec government should look into the numbers more closely and determine if there’s abuse. If there is abuse, then tackling the problem could help free up resources in the system to help other patients.”
The think tank compared Quebec’s numbers with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but did not provide data for other provinces or territories.
In B.C., the patient who recorded the most visits was seen 209 times by a general practitioner.
In Manitoba, that number was 252, and in Saskatchewan it was 199.
Alberta was unable to provide “any identifying information” on top 10 visitors.
According to the FOI for Quebec, the number of visits was determined based on “the number of patient-physician contacts for a service provided to an insured person by the Régie (RAMQ) on a specific day and at a given facility.”
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It noted that, “A person may have more than one visit on the same day if they saw more than one physician during that day,” and all visits were included, regardless of where they took place — private practice, hospital or in a long-term care facility, for example.
This is how many times Quebec’s top 10 users for 2024 saw a family doctor:
| Patient ranking | Number of appointments | Amount billed by doctor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 362 | $23,496 |
| 2 | 346 | $22,821 |
| 3 | 309 | $21,793 |
| 4 | 300 | $22,300 |
| 5 | 298 | $21,807 |
| 6 | 298 | $21,621 |
| 7 | 297 | $22,044 |
| 8 | 296 | $22,488 |
| 9 | 295 | $21,251 |
| 10 | 295 | $20,976 |
Quebec’s Health Ministry reiterated the fact that the numbers do not “solely represent appointments with a doctor in a private practice or visits to the emergency room.”
“The data may include home care, hospitalization and long-term care facilities (CHSLDs),” it said. “An elderly person who is ill and residing in a long-term care facility, or a patient hospitalized for a very long period — following an accident, for example — will inevitably be the subject of a significant number of consultations.”
The ministry added that it could not “draw conclusions” from the numbers as it is “unaware of the situation and condition of the individuals.”
Nevertheless, it insisted that access to health care remains a priority.
“It is important for the MSSS to continue identifying best practices for supporting frequent service users to address the specific needs of this patient group more effectively,” it said.
The ministry pointed to a recent report by the Institut national d’excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS) that emphasized that patients who made four or more emergency room visits in Quebec in 2018–2019 accounted for nine per cent of all patients and 29 per cent of total visits.
“The Quebec health care system, like those of other Canadian provinces, is based on a universal access system, which allows all eligible individuals to access the services they need, regardless of their medical history, chronic illnesses, or pre-existing conditions,” the ministry concluded.
For its part, the RAMQ simply noted that it “does not have information regarding the reason why a person makes an appointment.”
“The RAMQ’s role is to enforce the terms of the compensation agreement signed between the medical federations (in this case, the [Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec] FMOQ) and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS),” it told CTV News.
The data also showed that 11,586 people saw a doctor between 51 and 100 times in 2024, while 1,611 Quebecers had 100 or more appointments.
Across the other provinces, B.C. noted 14,497 patients who visited a doctor between 51 and 100 times; Alberta had 25,767, Saskatchewan had 31, and Manitoba had 560.
When it came to more than 100 appointments per person, B.C. recorded 241 patients, Alberta had 9,331, Saskatchewan had one, and Manitoba had 40.
Access to care
The numbers come amid growing cries for Quebec to fix its public health care system, with a 2025 study by the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) showing that in 2019, 82 per cent of the population was registered with a single family doctor.
That number steadily declined until it was 72 per cent in 2024.
At the time, the ISQ pointed to several reasons for the decline, such as retirements and newer doctors choosing to take on fewer patients.
Currently, about 1.5 million Quebecers do not have a family doctor.
Access to a general practitioner for every Quebecer was one of the many promises made by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government when it was first elected in 2018.
