Medical association calls for concerted effort to fix northern doctor shortage

The shortage of medical doctors in Northern Ontario has reached the point that action is needed on several fronts not only to attract more doctors, but to find ways of keeping them in the North. Inaction will mean the overall level of health care in this part of Ontario will continue to decline.

This was the message delivered today during an online news conference hosted by Ontario Medical Association President Dr. Andrew Park, along with NOSM University President and CEO Dr. Sarita Verma, Marathon family physician and NOSM Assistant Dean of Physician Workforce Strategy Dr. Sarah Newbury, and Meno Ya Win Health Centre (Sioux Lookout) Chief of Staff Dr. Laurel Laakso. 

Newbury said Northern Ontario, with a population of fewer than one million people, is spread out over a huge geographical area of 800,000 square kilometres.  

"That creates challenges for delivery of care and for patients to access care," she said. "We know, too, that our population has a lower life expectancy than the rest of the Province of Ontario by two-and-a-half to three years.

She said as of last June, Northern Ontario was actively recruiting for more than 360 new physicians to live and work in Northern Ontario.

"So we know that we need a really strong Northern strategy that includes many of the pieces that were articulated a year ago in the Prescription for Northern Ontario in order to be able to recruit and mentor, retain our physicians and support them, and return physicians back to practice," said Newbury.

In The Same Canoe

What is key, Newbury continued, is a concerted effort to change the situation.

"I'm going to use the Northern analogy and say that we need a way of ensuring that all of us across the health-care system are in the same canoe and paddling in the same direction to serve and to support the physician workforce strategy for Northern Ontario."

Laakso, the doctor from Sioux Lookout, said the family doctor shortage has hit her community hard. She said several residents are just not able to access a family doctor at all.

"Many patients tell me that primary care is so difficult to access in Sioux Lookout that it essentially no longer exists," said Laakso. "My personal family practice has a wait time of about four to five months to see me. Of course, the gold standard would be less than two weeks."

She added that the effort to keep the local emergency room open is a significant thing. It means some doctors will be asked to work a double shift, meaning their own patients have to be ignored for that time. 

Laakso said there have been times when the Sioux Lookout hospital has had to dip into its base budget to try and entice locums (temporary fill-in physicians) to visit the community, just to ensure the emergency room does not close.

In her comments during the news conference, Dr. Verma said she wanted to add context to how the doctor shortage affects Northern Ontario communities.

Verma said if an emergency room closed on University Avenue in Toronto, there are a dozen more hospitals in that city on top of walk-in clinics where people can get immediate care.  

"If you close an emergency room, let's say in Wawa, it's a multi-hour drive. And if you're ill, if you're delivering a baby or you're having a heart attack, your health care is in perilous danger," she said.

Verma added that health travel is also not an easy thing in Northern Ontario. She said in many cases the only choice for health travel is by air or a long distance trip by highway.

In her closing comment during the discussion, Verma said the shortage issue and access to health care concerns will not go away until someone with power, influence and decision-making ability steps up.

"Someone needs to take charge. And there are so many entities involved from multiple agencies and an attempt to consolidate everything under Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health and the regulatory agencies. And now, of course, the Ontario Medical Association," said Verma

"And when we want to have a conversation at NOSM U, we have to often have 50 people in the room. So the one thing we can do in northern Ontario is identify who's in charge who has the authority, and who has the jurisdiction to make the change," said Verma

Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com .