The Medical Association says recent polling shows that 26 per cent of NL residents asked are not attached to a family physician, representing more than 136,000 people.

The NLMA last week signed a Shared Agenda with the provincial government on ways to prioritize some of the issues facing family medicine in the province.

NLMA President Dr. Kris Luscombe says family medicine is facing a crisis due to physician shortages, the closure of rural ERs, growing demand and mounting overhead pressures.

The latest public polling released by Narrative Research on behalf of the NLMA shows that 26 per cent of the population is not attached to a family physician. Luscombe says the purpose of the Shared Agenda is to focus shared collective energies on high-level priority issues that will result in improvements in family medicine.