Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has pledged to roll out a $4-billion health-care plan aimed at ensuring every Ontarian has access to a family doctor.
On Friday, Stiles introduced the Family Health Guarantee — a plan to fast-track a number of proposed health-care solutions within her first 100 days in office if elected — during an announcement made at the campaign headquarters of Sault Ste. Marie NDP candidate Lisa Vezeau-Allen.
“My commitment to you is that an Ontario NDP government will connect every single Ontarian to team-based primary care. It’s a major shift that will make it easier and faster to get the care that you need,” Stiles said.
The Ontario NDP is looking to invest $4.05 billion over four years to hire more doctors under the Family Health Guarantee, in addition to the following commitments:
- Recruit and support 3,500 new doctors
- Expand health-care in northern Ontario by hiring 350 doctors, including 200 family physicians and 150 specialists
- The establishment of a Northern Command Centre to manage capacity across the north
- Additional administrative support for doctors
- Fast-track solutions in the first 100 days, including more family health teams, shorter specialist wait times, and flexible care options
- Clear the path for 13,000 internationally trained doctors and increase residency spots province-wide
Stiles promised to bring an additional 350 physicians to northern Ontario as part of the NDP’s pledge to recruit more than 3,000 doctors across the province.
“That is the scale of what’s needed,” said Stiles. “We’re going to clear barriers that are preventing thousands of internationally trained doctors from practicing here, and we’re going to get them into the work force.
“We’re going to take a targeted approach that delivers more care to the north.”
United Steel Workers Local 2724 president Bill Slater said last year’s de-rostering of 10,000 patients at the Group Health Centre in the Sault — a “pillar of the community” providing essential health-care for six decades — “exposed the urgent need to protect health-care access.”
“Ontario’s health-care system is stretched to its breaking point. What Marit and the Ontario NDP is proposing is a strong first step to addressing the crisis,” Slater said during the announcement.
“Her plan means more doctors, more care and faster access for patients. Workers expect their politicians to step up and fix this health-care crisis, before more lives are affected. Workers in the Sault and across Ontario deserve health-care when they need it.”
Stiles told reporters the Ontario NDP is working closely with both the Ontario Medical Association and Northern Ontario School of Medicine University to make sure “we have a target that’s realistic but possible” to train new doctors that have been unable to get into medical schools.
“We have to expand the number of medical school spaces and residencies, and we have to do that right here in northern Ontario,” she said.
“To keep people in northern Ontario, we actually have to make sure they have opportunities to go to school here in northern Ontario. That’s a key part of that.”
Stiles said the plan to establish a Northern Command Centre will help coordinate a response to the emergency department closures in rural communities across northern Ontario.
“They’re asking people to go further and further — you can’t have a baby in your home community anymore, you can’t get the care you need,” Stiles told SooToday during a question-and-answer session following the announcement.
“People are showing up at emergency rooms with sick children unable to get the care they need. That is unacceptable in a province like Ontario.
“We have to do better, and as the premier of this province, I’m going to deliver that.”
A total of 2.5-million people are currently without a family doctor, the Ontario NDP said in a new release issued Friday.
“It’s time that the people of the Sault and all across the north got the respect and the care that they deserve, and we’ve got an incredible candidate here — from here — who’s going to deliver that respect every single day,” Stiles said during Friday’s announcement.
“Lisa Vezeau-Allen and I are on your side, and we’re going to work tirelessly until everyone in this town has a doctor.”