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Ford government announces funding for primary care plan on eve of election call
The Ford government has announced a plan to spend $1.4 billion on a four-year plan to close the gap in accessing primary care in Ontario as cabinet ministers rush final promises out the door ahead of an early election.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ontario Premier Doug Ford plans to visit the lieutenant-governor to dissolve the legislature and trigger an early election campaign officially beginning on Wednesday.
Before that visit put the government into caretaker mode, forbidding the use of public resources for campaigning, a slew of announcements, spending and promises are being completed.
Monday morning saw Health Minister Sylvia Jones presenting her plan to spend $1.8 billion over four years to connect two million people with a family doctor or primary care team.
The announcement was made up of $1.4 billion in new money and $400 that had already been budgeted.
“With this historic, transformative investment, we can now achieve our goal of connecting every person in the province who wants a primary care provider,” Jones said.
The plan is being led by Dr. Jane Philpott, once a federal Liberal cabinet minister, who was given the task of connecting everyone in Ontario to primary care by the government last year.
“Together we will build a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient, and connected for every single person in Ontario,” Philpott said.
“In every community, your primary care team will be your front door to care, where you have a team of clinicians providing care you can access in a timely way, close to home.”
The new plan revolves around creating family health teams, rather than family doctors, who will offer primary care to people. The system aims to attach people to care based on their postal code.
The aim, the government said, is for the process to be as smooth as when a child enrolls at a local elementary school to begin their education.
Health care is an area opposition parties believe the Progressive Conservatives could be weak on, with both the Ontario NDP and Liberals looking to make the issue of family doctor access part of the upcoming election campaign.
It is unclear exactly how many people in Ontario are without a family doctor, although the government accepts it is at least 10 per cent of the population.
An internal Ministry of Health memo leaked to the Liberals at the end of last year found that more than 200 of Ontario’s 400-plus communities do not have a family doctor accepting new patients. It also warned 2,000 physicians were set to retire in the next five years.
The Ontario Medical Association has estimated roughly 2.5 million people don’t have a family doctor. That number, it believes, could rise to 4.4 million by 2026. The Canadian Institute for Health Information believes 10 per cent of the provincial population doesn’t have access to primary care.
Jones indicated Monday the government itself doesn’t have a concrete figure.
“There are a number of organizations that have been attempting to figure out the number of unattached patients,” she said. “What I can tell you is Ontario leads Canada in our attachment.”
Despite the announcement coming the day before Ford plans to dissolve the legislature, Jones said the funding was locked in and work would continue.
Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie said she is cynical about the timing of the announcement. She said the plan should have been put in place in 2018, shortly after Ford first came to power.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the health-care promise in particular is conspicuously timed.
“Doug Ford and the Conservatives have made the problem worse, not better, and now at the last minute as they’re heading into … an early snap election and they’re afraid,” she said while making an announcement in Brampton.
“They’re starting to make more promises that they’ll never deliver on.”
— with files from The Canadian Press
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