The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association is refuting some of the numbers regarding family physicians released in the Vital Signs 2019 report earlier this week.

The report, released by the Harris Centre, says that Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest proportion of family doctors per 100,000 people in the country. They say that there are 724 family doctors in the province, or 138 doctors per 100,000 people.

Dr. Charlene Fitzgerald, President of the NLMA, says those numbers are not accurate. They are based on numbers from CIHI, which gets their information from a directory of those with an MD.

The doctors do not need to be practicing to be on the list.

Fitzgerald says the actual numbers are 592 family doctors, meaning 113 physicians per 100,000 people.

Fitzgerald says it was important for them to get the facts straight. She says claiming we have more family physicians than we actually do dismisses the issue of access to family doctors as being nonexistent.