Health P.E.I. has reported a decline in the number of individuals listed on the provincial patient registry, which represents Islanders awaiting assignment to a primary care provider. At the end of September, the registry contained 31,707 names, reflecting a decrease of over 5,100 patients compared to January last year.
Between January 2025 and September 2026, Health P.E.I. assigned 15,669 residents to a doctor or nurse practitioner, while 20,040 new applications were submitted to the registry during the same period. Additionally, 9,523 records were marked as inactive due to reasons such as individuals relocating out of the province, passing away, having duplicate entries, or being ineligible.
Previously, Health P.E.I. had set a goal to reduce the patient registry to under 5,000 individuals by 2027. However, in April, 5,069 Islanders were added to the waitlist, while 2,960 were successfully assigned a primary care provider. As of the end of September, the Queens region had the highest number of applications at 14,069, encompassing Charlottetown and Stratford, followed by Eastern Prince with 8,999 applicants from areas like Summerside and Kensington. Eastern Kings, which includes locations like Souris and Morell, had the lowest number of registered applicants at 1,055.
Challenges faced by Health P.E.I. in reducing the patient registry include the closure of several medical practices by doctors moving to other provinces or retiring, which contributed to more patients being added to the waiting list. To address this, the health authority is implementing a new strategy at UPEI’s patient medical home, focusing on affiliating individuals with an entire team of healthcare providers rather than a single doctor or nurse practitioner.