TORONTO - Critics are accusing the governing Liberals of complacency in light of figures which show Ontario is continuing to lose precious family doctors to other provinces.

While Premier Dalton McGuinty says the government has made a lot of progress in recruiting and retaining Ontario doctors, the Ontario Medical Association and opposition parties say the situation is dire.

The latest statistics from the Canadian Institute for Health Information suggest Ontario is lagging behind seven other provinces with one of the lowest doctor-patient ratios in the country.

The report shows this is the second year in a row that Ontario has lost doctors to other provinces like Alberta and British Columbia.

Janice Willett, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said Ontario used to be a net importer of doctors. But last year, she said the province saw a net loss of 49 doctors. Ontario is 2,000 doctors short, Willett said, with another 2,500 doctors who are over 65 and ready to retire.

The number of doctors in Ontario has increased but not enough to keep up with the population growth, she added.

"We're trying to climb out of a pretty deep hole,'' Willett said. "It means you really have to put a lot of effort into it. ... We need to move up our efforts to retain physicians.''

Doctors here are frustrated with the amount of time they spend trying to navigate patients through the system, she said. The province could help by bringing in an electronic health-record system, which would help physicians get lab results and allow their patients to move more freely between specialists, Willett said.

Although the province has expanded medical spaces at Ontario universities, Willett said that's not enough to ease the growing shortage. Those spaces won't help unless the graduates stay in Ontario and aren't lured away to British Columbia or Alberta, she said.

"We need to throw a lifeline out,'' she said.

McGuinty said the province has done a lot to address the doctor shortage. It's offered competitive salaries and made it easier for foreign-trained professionals to get their medical licence here, he said Friday.

Although the Ontario Medical Association says more than one million Ontarians are without a family doctor, McGuinty said the Liberals have helped some 500,000 residents get a doctor.

"We think we have the right environment in place to attract doctors and keep them here,'' said McGuinty, adding the job isn't done yet and the province will continue to expand medical school spaces.

"Obviously there is still more to do.''

But Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said this is no time for the government to count on medical students who will graduate in eight years.

The number of underserviced Ontario communities has jumped from 122 in 2003 to 141 today, Tory said. It's time the government took the shortage seriously and immediately launched an aggressive strategy, including implementing electronic health records and deferring debt repayments for new graduates, he added.

"They should get a sense of urgency about this,'' Tory said. "The very fact that they have the audacity to say that they're making progress and it's just a matter of waiting like it's something cooking on the stove, is absolutely an abdication of responsibility.''

Others, like New Democrat France Gelinas, said Ontario needs to frame the discussion differently and take a more holistic approach. People turn to doctors for all kinds of reasons when nutritionists, nurses and social workers could do a better job, she said.

"We're having the wrong conversation,'' she said. "We shouldn't be talking about how many physicians we have. We should be talking about how do people have access to primary care.''