Here’s some solutions to our doctor shortage

While local issues were front and centre during the election, it is no surprise that health care tops people’s priorities across Ontario.

An October 31st survey by the Innovative Research Group, asked the following question: “If you had the chance to sit down with the Premier and the Liberal caucus, what is the one thing you would tell them that you want them to do differently during their new mandate than they did during the last four years in power?” The number one response – “Improve healthcare”, followed by “honesty”.

My offices receive calls each and every week from anxious folks who cannot find a family physician. Every person should have a family doctor – but one in ten of us do not. It’s simply not acceptable that more than a million people in Ontario – including 130,000 children – cannot get the care they need.

Ontario is no longer the destination of choice for Canadian doctors. We lose almost 30 per cent of our new medical school graduates within two years of completing their training. Ontario has also experienced a decline in its total physician population ratio since 2002 – the only province to see such a decline.

Premier McGuinty promised to fix the doctor shortage – but it has gotten worse. According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the number of doctors accepting new patients has fallen 50 per cent since 2003. Recent figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information show that in 2006, Ontario experienced a net loss of 49 physicians – more than triple the loss of 2005.

In an aging profession, fewer doctors are accepting new patients and many are working less than full time. We see it now as older patients are forced to seek treatment in busy emergency rooms and walk-in clinics. As a result, they are not receiving the on-going professional health care they require as they age.

Urgent action is needed now so that everyone can begin receiving the basic comforts and supports of a family doctor. There are solutions.

Thirty per cent of Ontarians have a chronic medical problem such as asthma, diabetes or a physical disability. It is estimated that effective management of asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure and depression could prevent 29,000 emergency room visits, over 67,000 hospitalizations with an estimated annual cost savings between $200 and $350 million.

Currently, the health care system is oriented to the treatment of episodic acute illness rather than proactive treatment and health promotion. I feel the innovative use of technology, such as electronic health records, are vital to improving chronic disease management and prevention and yet this government does not feel this is a priority.

All of us, at some point in time, use the health care system, so it’s no wonder it remains our number one concern. It remains unclear how the provincial government will deal with an aging population as satisfaction with the current system continues to wane. What is clear is that Ontarians will not tolerate the status quo; therefore Premier McGuinty must get his act together.