The call of the Canadian physician

The 2007 National Physician Survey shows that 70% of physicians are on call each month. Slightly fewer female and family physicians are on call compared with male physicians and other specialists. A higher proportion of physicians under the age of 45 take on-call duty, see more patients while on call and provide more patient care than do those over 45 years. But the older doctors--both family physicians and other specialists--are on call for more hours each month than are their younger colleagues. Physicians in group or inter-professional practices are more likely to have on-call responsibilities, but they do fewer hours each month than do those in solo practice.