Physician Distribution and Physician Shortage Intensity in Ontario

During the 1990s, in Ontario and many other jurisdictions, the focus on the physician human resources debate has moved from aggregate surpluses to shortages. However, the problem of equitable access to those resources, and health services in general, has remained. During this period, much government policy effort has been targeted toward the perceived "maldistribution" of resources between geographic regions. This paper applies the Gini index of resource concentration methodology to gauge the maldistribution of physician resources in Ontario during the 1990s. It also proposes, and implements, an approach for quantifying physician shortages through a physician shortage intensity index. The results reveal that despite numerous government policies and programs aimed at alleviating the geographic maldistribution of medical human resources, the distribution of physicians in Ontario has become more uneven during the 1990s. This puts the efficacy of government policies to correct geographic maldistribution into question. Additionally, there has been no meaningful improvement in overall physician shortage intensity during the 1990s.