A new poll suggests 37 per cent of Canadians have no choice but to seek health information they found online because they couldn't access a doctor.
The online poll of more than 37-hundred adult Canadians by the Canadian Medical Association and Abacus Data also found that 23 per cent of respondents who followed health advice they found online had a bad reaction or a negative impact on their health.
Doctor Joss Reimer, president of the C-M-A, says when Canadians can't access trusted relationships with health-care providers, it's not surprising that they turn to online sources for health information.
The C-M-A says an estimated 6.5 million Canadians — one in five people — do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner they see regularly.
Employment and Social Development Canada says Canada could be short nearly 20-thousand doctors by 2031.
Reimer says part of a step forward to mitigate the number of Canadians forced to access health information online would be having a more integrated health-care system.
