Reducing the physician administrative burden will help doctors improve care and work-life balance

Eliminating the 20 million hours of unnecessary paperwork and administrative tasks doctors face annually would free up the equivalent of 9,000 full time physicians, according to Losing doctors to desk work: Canadian physicians lose 20 million hours each year to red tape report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). The findings are released today as part of CFIB’s 17^th annual Red Tape Awareness Week^TM.

For individual doctors, this means reclaiming up to 199 hours a year, more than a full month of working time. In Manitoba alone, eliminating unnecessary paperwork and administrative tasks could free up the equivalent of 326 doctors. 

Manitoba has already made impressive early progress on this front through its Joint Task Force, eliminating over 75,000 hours of unnecessary physician paperwork according to a 2024 progress update. That work is making a difference, but this new report shows there’s much more to do to ensure doctors can focus on care, not red tape.

Manitoba physicians spend 9.7 hours per week on administrative tasks, above the national average of 9.1 hours per week. However, this is an improvement from 10.1 hours per week estimated in a 2023 survey from Doctors Manitoba, suggesting that targeted initiatives can yield meaningful results. 

“Excessive paperwork and unnecessary administrative tasks continue to impact care by pulling doctors away from seeing more patients,” said Dr. Nichelle Desilets, President of Doctors Manitoba. ​“This new report shows a modest improvement in physician administrative burden in Manitoba, reflecting some early and easy fixes to reduce our paperwork. However, the report also confirms Manitoba’s doctors still spend more time on these tasks than in most provinces, underscoring the need for more substantial and systemic changes to make a real difference for doctors and their patients.”

Most physicians (85%) said unnecessary work stems mainly from health-system processes, insurance companies (76%), government forms (59%), pharmacies (58%), and electronic record systems (51%).

“Health care challenges, such as long wait times, emergency department closures, and staffing shortages, affect everyone, including family doctors that own practices.” said Brianna Solberg, CFIB Director, Legislative Affairs. ​“Doctors are spending too much time on work that could be eliminated entirely or done by someone else. Cutting red tape isn’t optional anymore, it’s a critical solution we can’t afford to ignore,” 

“This is the moment to act. Reducing the crushing administrative burden and modernizing health systems will free doctors to do what they do best — deliver care,” said Dr. Margot Burnell, CMA President. ​“Every step we take now means faster access to care for Canadians and stronger support for the communities that need it most.” 

Physician in Manitoba identified the following priorities to make a meaningful reduction to their administrative burden:

• Improving specialist referrals and diagnostic test ordering.
• Simplifying government, insurance, and employer medical forms.
• Eliminating sick notes.
• Introducing truly interoperable electronic records to help eliminate the fax machine in medicine.
• Adopting AI scribes to help with charting.

The Manitoba government has indicated it will introduce new legislation this spring to limit the use of sick notes in the province.