The number of family physicians in Canada declined last year for the first time since the mid-1990s, a downturn that happened as rapid population growth and a rising number of elderly, chronically ill patients were already straining the primary-care system. Although the reduction in head count was small - there were 28 fewer family doctors in the country in 2023 than in 2022 - it works out to a nearly 3-per-cent drop in family physicians per capita because the population expanded significantly at the same time, according to new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).