The ‘hangover’: Collingwood calls on province to fix doctor shortage

The city of Collingwood is signing its name to a resolution being shared across Ontario calling out the Ontario government for not doing enough with dollars to recognize the doctor shortage affecting the province.

As part of their July 22 agenda, councilors considered supporting a motion jointly drafted by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Ontario Medical Association. The motion states that 2.3 million Ontarians currently do not have access to a family doctor and 40 per cent of family doctors are considering retirement in the next five years.

“It’s to address what we all know is a serious problem in our province … particularly outside of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area),” said Coun. Deb Doherty, who moved the motion and asked that notice be waived so that the motion would be passed in time for the AMO Annual Conference, which is being held in Ottawa August 18-21.

“Now we have municipalities competing with each other for doctors. Not every municipality can afford to play this game,” she said.

According to the motion, the percentage of family physicians practicing comprehensive family medicine has fallen from 77 in 2008 to 65 in 2022, and per capita health care spending in Ontario is the lowest of any province in Canada.

As reported earlier this year, the South Georgian Bay Ontario Health Team estimates there are 6,000 to 7,000 people in South Georgian Bay who currently do not have a local family doctor.

The College of Family Physicians of Ontario estimates that by 2026, one in four Ontario residents will be without a family physician. According to the latest Ontario Auditor General’s report, one in five emergency room visits in Ontario involved patients going to the emergency room for non-urgent problems because they didn’t have a family doctor or access to other services.

During Monday’s discussion, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin highlighted her experience on the South Georgian Bay Physician Recruitment Committee — made up of mayors and staff from the four municipalities — until it was disbanded in 2022. As part of that work, the group succeeded in getting Collingwood named a municipality with a high need for doctors.

“We knew there was something that was preventing family doctors from settling here in town,” Hamlin said. “This problem is a hangover from the fact that we are not allowed to have new doctors established here.”

On Monday evening, the motion was voted unanimously by councilors.