Posted on 02/18/2005 9:09:37 AM PST by FormerACLUmember
Ontario's doctor shortage is taking a turn for the worse as the last six physicians in the town of Geraldton are quitting en masse, presenting another headache for Health Minister George Smitherman.
The move will leave the local hospital and thousands of patients with no physicians when the departures take effect in May — unless months of failed efforts to recruit replacement physicians suddenly pay off.
Losing its doctors will likely move Geraldton to the top of the list of about 140 cities and towns in the province officially designated by the government as being short of doctors. About 100 of those are in southern Ontario.
The Ontario Medical Association estimates one million Ontarians don't have family physicians and says that number is likely to grow with hundreds of doctors — many of them over 65 — within a few years of retiring.
The Geraldton crisis comes at an awkward time for Smitherman, whose ministry is embroiled in contract talks with doctors through the OMA, which has warned that the doctor shortage will grow worse without more incentives.
"We're sick at what this could mean for our patients," Dr. Saralaine Johnstone said in a phone interview yesterday from Geraldton, a community of 3,000 which is one of four towns amalgamated into the municipality of Greenstone, a three-hour drive north of Thunder Bay.
But long workdays, adding up to between 80 and 100 hours a week for the doctors staffing the Geraldton District Hospital, a community clinic and a satellite office in a nearby small town, have taken their toll, she added.
"There's a minimum number of physicians you need to be able to practise safely and the number dropped below that threshold. Eventually it does become unsafe for the physicians and the community."
Most of the doctors had signed on for three-year contracts in Geraldton and their time is up, Johnstone added, noting several want to spend more time with their families or to return to southern Ontario.
"We're not alone in this. This is something that many communities are facing," said Greenstone Mayor Michael Power, who was in Toronto for a meeting. "But when you have every doctor leaving (at the same time), that hits you really hard."
Geraldton residents learned of the pending departures in a notice published by the doctors in a local newspaper this week.
"Everyone's in a state of shock," Pat Larsen, who works at a car rental agency and has lived in Geraldton for 32 years, told the Star. "It's really, really devastating. There's so many seniors in our area and they need a lot of care."
Smitherman said his officials are trying to help Geraldton find replacement doctors. "The people of Geraldton will not be left abandoned," he vowed.
A short-term solution could involve luring doctors to Geraldton for temporary stints, known as locums. "This hospital is part of a five-hospital network, which means that there is other strength in the region that we can depend upon," Smitherman said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton called that approach inadequate because the nearest communities with doctors — Hearst and Nipigon — are a two-hour drive away. He said the government's lack of a plan to attract more physicians is making Geraldton a "doctor ghost town."
"Physicians in a small northern community like Geraldton are typically quite overworked because they're almost always on call weekends and after hours ... They really take on huge responsibilities."
OMA president Dr. John Rapin said he talked to some of the Geraldton doctors yesterday and noted their contract makes them among the best paid in the province. They are part of a program designed to lure doctors to remote northern areas.
But it's not a matter of money — it's the hours they must put in unless more doctors can be recruited to share the load, added Rapin, an emergency room physician in Kingston. "Nobody's prepared to work to the death."
Conservative health critic John Baird (Nepean-Carleton) warned that Geraldton won't be the last community to lose its doctors.
"Geraldton is a microcosm of what Ontario will be like because of the failure of the McGuinty government to have a plan to retain and attract doctors in Ontario."
Smitherman said the government is taking steps to ease the doctor shortage, including offering a new contract that would make Ontario physicians the highest-paid in Canada.
The deal would boost their pay by about $1 billion over four years, with some physicians who work outside traditional office hours in remote areas getting hikes of up to 35 per cent.
The Dems say health care is a "right". Well, this shows that ,even in Canada, you do not have the right to other peoples life and time. Health care professionals will have to negotiate with the GOVERNMENT for contracts and the only people who will get "healthcare" will be those who will pay cash.
People can not see it coming.
There's only one solution to this....
When you have a labor shortage, it's really important to get really tight on the regulations so that errors don't occur. They need a lot more regulators to review the paperwork to make sure that any doctors remaining are doing their jobs right. /Sarcasm off
That's not saying much, when they're currently making less than some plumbers and auto-plant workers, with no benefits or sick pay.
Leftist healthcare . . . . . . coming to a medical facility near you if Hillary and the Dems get their way.
And unlike you or I they'll get it free.
Ontario's population is about 13 million or so.
They are probably already here.
I wonder how many liberal doctors fleed to Canada when W. Bush won the election? snicker, snicker
We are much closer to a similar revolt in the US by the medical profession, than we realize.
As far as I know- there's no license reciprocity, unfortunate in this case.
". Evolution of Health Care in Canada and the Canada Health Act
We can trace the Canadian Medicare system that we know today, back to 1948. The person credited for beginning the movement to establish a healthcare system for all Canadians was the Premier of the Province of Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas (an interesting aside - he was Keifer Sutherland's grandfather). His government - the Canadian Cooperative Federation (CCF) - introduced universal hospital insurance for residents of Saskatchewan in 1948 and government insurance for physician services in 1957.
In 1964 the Federal Government followed both actions by establishing the legal basis for a national hospital insurance program and a medical-services insurance program. The author of a pivotal federal government sponsored report, Justice Emmet Hall, recommended medicare for all of Canada and by 1972, all of the provinces had agreed to join the plan. A nationwide medicare program for hospital and physician services was established and available to all Canadians from that time."
Oh, the ironic justice!
Population of Canada is over 31M. Ontario population is about 11-12M with roughly 90% living within 100 miles of the US border.
There is not really a big problem, I don't have a specific family doctor but it's not like I don't have health care. I guess I would be counted in that 1M figure. I go into the clinic/medical centre and deal with whatever doctor is there. I guess on the downside, I don't have a specific person who is aware of my history... but my records are available if need be.
I just have not had time to get a family doctor and there is no rush to do so. Tired of hearing that there is a crisis here with the health care system... that is far from the truth.
Actually, THEIR bad. :) Hehehe
The most recent number I found is about 12.5 million (12,536,031, at some point in year 2004).
Socialized medicine is rationed medicine.
HillaryCare (tm) Bump!
That's why we left in 1986. Doctors were leaving Ontario before that and the cost of free medical was killing me in me taxes.
whoops: me taxes = my taxes.
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