January 26, 2026
RED FM News Desk
A staggering 3 million hours are lost every year in British Columbia to unnecessary medical paperwork, effectively stripping the province of the equivalent of 1,426 full-time physicians. The findings were released Monday in a joint report titled Losing Doctors to Desk Work, published by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).
The report, timed for the 17th annual Red Tape Awareness Week™, highlights a growing administrative crisis that experts say is fueling physician burnout and reducing patient access. On average, B.C. doctors spend 9.7 hours per week—more than a full working day—on administrative tasks. General practitioners, who are already in critical short supply, report the heaviest workloads, leading to concerns that excessive paperwork is directly shrinking the pool of available family doctors.
For the average physician, eliminating this “desk work” would reclaim approximately 199 hours per year, or more than a full month of clinical time. The impact extends beyond current care; nearly one-third of practicing doctors admitted they would discourage medical students from entering their specialty specifically because of the administrative burden. Kalith Nanayakkara, Senior Policy Analyst at CFIB, noted that doctors are feeling “exhausted and burned out,” making recruitment increasingly difficult.
Physicians surveyed identified two primary solutions: eliminating the requirement for doctors to perform non-clinical administrative tasks (72%) and ensuring “interoperability,” or the ability to easily share patient records across different digital systems (71%). Many believe that streamlining these processes is the fastest way to increase “capacity” in the healthcare system without waiting years for new graduates.
The report also identifies Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a potential lifeline. While 28% of physicians already use AI scribe tools to automate note-taking, and another 42% are interested, high costs and privacy concerns remain significant barriers. The CFIB is urging the B.C. government to provide clearer legal frameworks and secure preferred pricing for AI tools to ensure doctors can shift their focus from screens back to patients.
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