This article originally appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of the Ontario Medical Review magazine.
Immediate action needed to address health delivery gaps
The Ontario Medical Association is urging the government to prioritize investment in the health-care system when it unveils the provincial budget. In recent pre-budget consultations, the OMA has advocated for substantive and targeted investments in health care, following up on the release of its Prescription for Ontario: Doctors’ 5-Point Plan for Better Health Care. The plan, unveiled in October, contains 87 realistic and achievable recommendations to fix the gaps in Ontario’s health-care system over the next four years.
OMA representatives made three appearances before the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in January. Dr. Sarah Newbery, assistant dean at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and Dr. Stephen Cooper, OMA District 9 chair, presented to the committee in northwestern and northeastern Ontario on Jan. 10 and 11. They focused on recommendations in Prescription for Northern Ontario, including addressing critical physician shortages in the north; the need for immediate action on physician retention and training; and the importance of virtual care and mental health and addictions supports.
CEO Allan O’Dette, President Dr. Adam Kassam and Dr. James Wright, chief of OMA’s Economics, Policy and Research department, told the committee on Jan. 26 that major investments recommended in Prescription for Ontario should be delivered simultaneously across the province.
The OMA and our province’s 43,000 doctors have seen the deficiencies in our health-care system magnified under the weight of COVID-19. The impact on patient care is incalculable and it will take years to catch up.
Ontario doctors urge the government to prioritize investments in health care to ensure both personal and economic well-being. Health care and the economy are inextricably linked. A strong health-care system must therefore be the priority.
The pandemic has created a backlog of 20 million delayed health-care services — more than one for every Ontarian. It will take years to resolve this pandemic backlog, on top of pre-pandemic wait times.
We have a growing and aging population and a shortage of doctors in certain specialties and regions.
More than one million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor. This is especially concerning as family doctors provide preventive care and are the gateway to the rest of the health-care system.
The eight-month consultation for Prescription for Ontario was the largest in the OMA’s 140-year history and the alignment amongst stakeholders and the public was clear: to improve the delivery of health care in Ontario, it comes down to these five priorities:
Ontarians agree. According to an Ipsos survey conducted for the OMA in December, 96 per cent of respondents support the Prescription for Ontario’s five pillars. This kind of alignment is rare and tells us that our plan is on the right track. When asked to identify the issue that was most important to them, 40 per cent chose COVID-19, followed by almost 30 per cent who said either wait times or the backlog in health-care services.
Ontario’s doctors know the province cannot adequately fund health care on its own. The OMA strongly supports the call by Premier Ford for the federal government to increase the Canada Health Transfer to 35 per cent of provincial-territorial health-care spending, up from the 19 from the current 22 per cent.