The progressive conservative government has announced $ 1.4 billion in new funds for an action plan to connect two million more people in Ontario with a primary care provider, a few days before an early provincial election is activated.
The financing will help a team led by former Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Philpott, will implement her plan to create and/or expand 305 primary care teams throughout the province, which the Government says it will connect 300,000 people more with primary care this year.
The teams are generally made up of a family doctor or a professional nurse who works along with other health professionals, such as nurses, medical assistants and dietitians.
The objective is to have everyone currently on the waiting list for a family doctor along with a primary care provider by 2026, said Philpott.
“Ontario is embarking on a historic opportunity to build a primary care system where the guarantee of access to a primary care team is as automatic as a child assigned to a school in his community,” Philpott said at a press conference Monday morning.
“This plan is ambitious and the changes will not occur overnight.”
Last October, the province announced that they had taken advantage of Philpott to lead the newly created team with a mandate to connect each person in Ontario to a primary care provider in the next five years.
The announcement occurs only two days before Prime Minister Doug Ford is ready to activate an electoral campaign of 28 days.
However, the Minister of Health and the Vice Pressure Sylvia Jones denied that the news was a campaign promise.
“The plan is in place, that work will continue, and now we have the opportunity to build that emotion,” he said.
Ontario’s opposition parties say that Doctor of the province’s shortage should be discussed in the campaign. As Shawn Jeffords of CBC reports, they resist the impulse of Prime Minister Doug Ford to frame only the vote as a fight against the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and his tariff threats.
The leaders of the opposition party questioned the time of the announcement.
The leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario, Bonnie Crombie, says that this should have been done in 2018, shortly after Ford came to power for the first time.
The leader of the NDP, Marit Stiles, accused Ford government of making last minute promises “that they will never deliver.”
“I think the inhabitants of Ontario are not going to buy this in the [Progressive] Conservative government again. You had your chance, “he said.
The $ 1.4 billion are at the top of $ 400 million in funds already approved to improve primary care, the province said in a press release.
The Ontario Medical Association warned that 2.5 million people in Ontario do not have a family doctor and that number will grow to more than 4.4 million people by 2026.
In a statement on Monday, the association said that it appreciates financing, but more must be done to retain and attract family doctors in the province.
“We have to modernize support for family medicine and many other specialties to make sure they are there when Ontario inhabitants need them,” said Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the association.
