Simcoe County municipalities call for province to address doctor shortage

Municipalities in Simcoe County are calling on the province to help tackle the complex challenge of physician shortages.

Last week, Barrie city councillors approved a direct motion to join other municipalities, putting pressure on the Ford government to recognize the local and Ontario-wide physician shortage.

The motion, put forward without notice by Councillor Ann-Marie Kungl, came as many councillors and mayors were set to gather in Ottawa this week for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario's (AMO) annual conference.

"This is a constant issue, and it's one that the province has to grapple with," said Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, who spoke at the AMO conference this week.

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The motion was brought forth as part of a coordinated effort between AMO and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). The two organizations have teamed up to empower as many of the province's 444 municipalities as possible to pass a motion calling for increased action on addressing Ontario's doctor shortage from the provincial government.

Barrie has joined Bradford, Innisfil and Collingwood, to name a few, in passing the motion.

This week, it's been a topic of discussion at the AMO conference. According to the OMA, roughly 2.3 million Ontarians don't have access a family doctor.

"We need to figure out how to rightsize that and how to attract our talented young Canadians who decide to go into the medical field, to stay and practice here," Nuttall added. "We also need to make sure that those coming from other countries have the skills; we need to remove the barriers to let doctors practice medicine here."

The administrative burden on physicians can also deter those wanting to practice medicine.

Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc and the council spoke with officials at the town's closest hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, before this week's AMO conference.

"They said to us straightforward that they see a patient for an hour and they have two hours of basic administrative needs that they have to do. That's been a burden on them," Leduc told CTV News. "So, we've asked the OMA to go to the province to discuss setting up software programs so everyone will be on the same page when it comes to software."

Bradford also wants to take an active role in shaping its health care through local partnerships. Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU), the mayor said it could work directly with the hospital to develop a plan and agreement on what is needed.

Nearby Georgina has already signed a similar agreement.

Meanwhile, at the County of Simcoe level, the municipality does not handle physician recruitment directly for primary care but said its staffing levels are stable across its long-term care homes.

However, the County is looking to make the region a place for everyone to live, including newcomers.

"One of the things we brought up today is immigration. We're rapidly becoming one of the hubs for new immigrants, especially with the Honda announcement," said Basil Clarke, County of Simcoe Warden. "That's something we're focused on to get the services here.

We need that, we need our partners, we need the province, and we need the feds to come to the table. There's always a language barrier. What do we do? These folks are here; they want to work; let's get them into the workforce as quickly as possible."

According to the OMA, Ontario spends the lowest per capita of all provinces on health care. It also estimates that 40 per cent of family physicians are considering retirement over the next five years.