In the face of mounting criticism over a worsening shortage of family doctors, Premier Doug Ford‘s government is turning to Queen’s University medical school director Dr. Jane Philpott to solve the problem.
The former federal Liberal health minister will head a “primary care action team” aimed at connecting every Ontarian to a family doctor within five years. Her appointment takes effect Dec. 1.
Philpott’s challenge is massive: 2.5 million Ontarians do not have a primary care physician, a number that is expected to top four million in the next couple of years as the province grows and aging family doctors retire. The Ontario Medical association estimates the province needs at least 2,500 more primary care physicians.
“There’s no one I trust more than Dr. Philpott with her considerable experience to keep moving us forward and get across the finish line of connecting everyone in the province to more convenient primary care,” Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a statement Monday as the legislature resumed following an unusually long five-month summer break amid speculation about an early election next year.
Opposition parties signaled they will pressure the government on health care with Ford seemingly more concerned about bike lanes, building a tunnel under Highway 401 and spending as much as $1 billion to get beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks into convenience stores a year earlier than planned.
New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles was skeptical about the Philpott appointment.
“I have enormous respect for her,” she said, but added “this is not a government that listens to experts, let along their own experts…we’ll wait to see what they do.”
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie noted that Ford promised in the 2018 election to end “hallway health care” in hospitals, a problem that has worsened to about 2,000 patients a day after six years of Progressive Conservative rule.
“Yet again, we see this government appointing an expert or a panel of experts only to write a report which they will ignore,” Crombie told reporters, adding she also has respect for Philpott, who was a keynote speaker to the Ontario Liberal party’s policy convention in London last month.
To put the doctor shortage into perspective, the Liberals pointed out the 2.5 million Ontarians without a family physician are roughly equivalent to the populations of Ottawa, Mississauga and Brampton combined.
In a statement released by the government, Philpott said “Ontario can build a health system where the guarantee of access to primary care is as automatic as the assurance that every child will be assigned to a public school in their neighbourhood.”
“Our goal will be for 100 per cent of Ontarians to be attached to a family doctor or nurse practitioner working in a publicly funded team, where they receive ongoing, comprehensive care and people can access that care in a timely way,” she continued.
Philpott’s school analogy, however, does not account for the fact that in some fast-growing areas of Toronto school boards have posted signs warning new residents that their children may not be able to attend a neighborhood school because of overcrowding and may have to go to a school further away.
Philpott, who is also dean of the faculty of health sciences at Queen’s and has spent 30 years in family medicine and on global health initiatives, will oversee a health ministry team that will look to the “Periwinkle model” she devised with colleagues in the Kingston-area Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario health team to expand access to primary care, including weekends and evenings.
While Jones has invested $110 million in primary health care teams across the province to connect about 328,000 more people to family doctors, the doctor shortage persists. In Sault Ste. Marie, for example, a major clinic cut loose several thousand patients earlier this year because it didn’t have enough physicians to care for them.
The Ontario Medical Association has complained about a heavy administrative burden on family doctors that is taking time away from patient care, and encouraged the government to streamline paperwork.
Ontario is opening two new medical schools and has expanded the number of med school spots available, but it will take time for those students to graduate. The province is also trying to recruit more doctors trained in other countries.
