Is there a doctor for you in Haldimand-Norfolk?

Regularly my office receives phone calls from constituents who cannot find a family physician. Many believe that we will be able to find them a doctor but if there’s not a doctor accepting new patients, the request becomes impossible. As well, many local residents are concerned how long they will continue to have a doctor.

Today, there are almost one million Ontarians without a family doctor. I have fought over the years to help get our area designated as under-serviced and the number of communities so-designated has now grown to 142.

Doctor recruitment is big business and Ontario is in constant competition with other jurisdictions. It is thought that almost 60 per cent of doctors who leave Ontario move to British Columbia or Alberta. According to the Ontario Medical Association, there is an estimated shortage of about 2,000 physicians.

As the Official Opposition, the PC caucus has put forward an OMA-recommended resolution to ensure all Ontarians have timely access to a family doctor. The plan would include:

• Implementing a physician resource and recruitment plan,
  
  
• Deferring the debt repayment for Ontario medical residents,
  
  
• Providing flexible alternatives to retirement in order to retain our experienced physicians

Projections indicate that Ontario’s population will grow by 30 per cent, from our present population of 12.69 million to 16.49 by 2031. By the same year, it is expected that the number of seniors will more than double from 1.6 million to 3.5 million – typically, those in their senior years require additional care, adding extra strain on the already-stressed healthcare system. Further, as the general population ages, so does the age of our doctors. Recent reports indicate that younger physicians are working fewer hours than their older counterparts.

As the patient population ages, more physicians retire, and practicing doctors work less, the number of people without a family doctor will steadily rise.

As well, patients requiring treatment for chronic diseases will be left without on-going care from a doctor who can track their illness. Further, older patients will be forced to seek treatment in already crowded emergency rooms or walk-in clinics.

The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons is also calling on the government to devise a long-term plan and has said that the province cannot rely solely on recruiting international medical graduates to fill the gaps. They are calling for an aggressive commitment to add more medical school spaces and residency training positions.

In his first mandate, Premier McGuinty delisted chiropractic, optometry and physiotherapy services -- I personally feel that there is a place for government to promote general wellness and prevent illness. I feel that the delisting of such key services set our healthcare system back significantly.

A few weeks ago, the Official Opposition tabled the OMA-recommended resolution to recruit new doctors to the province and retain those currently practicing here by making Ontario a more attractive place to practice medicine.

It is my hope that the McGuinty government will not play politics with the PC resolution that has been put forward as well as the suggestions by the OMA and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Through the McGuinty health tax, taxpayers deserve better service and it is unfair to those without a doctor who are forced to continue paying the health premium.