Home > Examining access to primary care for people with opioid use disorder in Ontario, Canada: a randomized clinical trial.

Spithoff, Sheryl and Mogic, Lana and Hum, Susan and Moineddin, Rahim and Meaney, Christopher and Kiran, Tara (2022) Examining access to primary care for people with opioid use disorder in Ontario, Canada: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Network Open, 5, (9), e2233659. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.33659.

External website: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/f...

Importance: People with opioid use disorder are less likely than others to have a primary care physician.

Question: Are family physicians less likely to accept people with opioid use disorder as new patients than people with diabetes?

Findings: In this randomized clinical trial conducted in Ontario, Canada, assessing 383 family physicians, were almost 3 times less likely (4% vs 11%) to offer a new patient appointment to a prospective patient with opioid use disorder than those with diabetes.

Meaning: These findings suggest that physician discretion in accepting new patients contributes to poor primary care access for patients with opioid use disorder, indicating a need for health system changes.


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