Lack of general practitioners in Ontario is past the critical stage
As I write this a few days after Thanksgiving, I am preparing to finally return to the Legislature on Oct. 21. As you might know, the Ford Government adjourned the Legislature the first week of June and we have not sat since.
A government that often criticizes teachers for their work ethic, this government has decided to take five months off from introducing and debating legislation and being held accountable by the opposition.
Given this five month pause, you might think that upon returning to the Legislature, the Ford Government might have an aggressive agenda to address the most important issue of the day, the lack of family doctors and primary care. Unfortunately, if you thought that way you would be wrong.
Right now in Ontario there are 2.5 million people without a family doctor. That number is staggering. Recently, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has released an estimate that by 2025 that number will reach 4.4 million!
Here in Ottawa, that means there are roughly 163,000 residents without a family doctor. And that number is only getting bigger.
The OMA tells us that almost 40 per cent of prac-ticing family doctors is considering retirement in the next few years. That means, we need 3,500 new family doctors, and we need them now!
Instead of bringing the Legislature back into session on time, to discuss and debate the challenges in healthcare and access to family doctors in particular. Instead of spending that time announcing new measures to retain family doctors and recruit new ones, Doug Ford has spent the summer working on more ways to reward his friends and insiders.
Over the course of the summer and fall, I have met with members of the community, doctors, healthcare experts and others to discuss the challenges face by family doctors and those young students considering the profession, and how we must address them.
There is no silver bullet, and fixing the problem will not happen overnight. But there are options to available to address the workload doctors face. There are options to address the financial challenges of starting and maintaining a family practice. There are options to recognize foreign credentials. And there are options to recruit more young doctors into family medicine.
My colleagues and I will be speaking more and more about these options as the Legislature finally returns to session.
We need to stop the crisis and save healthcare before it is too late.