Analysis of demographic and practice characteristics of psychiatrists in three Canadian provinces

Objective — To describe demographic and practice characteristics of psychiatrists in British Columbia (BC), Manitoba (MB) and Ontario (ON) and explore how practice characteristics change by psychiatrist sex/gender and years since medical school graduation.

Method — We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study of all practising psychiatrists who had patient interactions and submitted billings from the fiscal years (FY) 2012/2013 to 2021/2022 using linked administrative data in BC, MB and ON. Psychiatrist demographic variables included age, sex/gender, years since medical school graduation and their practice location. Psychiatrist practice characteristics included visit and patient volume, service settings and patient diagnoses. We used measures of central tendency to describe demographic and practice characteristics and quantify change over time using percentage change.

Results — The number of psychiatrists increased from 2012/2013 to 2021/2022 (percentage change, BC: 15.4%, MB: 20.0%, ON: 11.8%) and kept up with population increases, shown by stable per-capita supply of psychiatrists. The median age of psychiatrists in all provinces decreased over the study period. The percentage of female psychiatrists in practice increased in all provinces, but more in BC and ON than in MB. On average, psychiatrists are seeing a greater number of patients per year in 2021/2022 than in 2012/2013 (percentage change, BC: 14.6%, MB: 6.5%, ON: 11.1%), and more than half of patients are seen, on average, for one or two visits in all three provinces. More patients receive substance use and psychosis diagnoses over the 10-year study.

Conclusions — During the past decade, psychiatric practice characteristics show modest changes despite changing psychiatrist demographics and subtle shift towards more consultative practices. While provinces demonstrated similar trends, differences underscore the importance of conducting pan-Canadian analyses to highlight particularities in workforce patterns.