KENORA — Help is on the way for the Northwestern Ontario hospitals grappling with a staffing crisis.
Last fall, officials said the emergency department was on the brink of collapse and a new funding model was needed to keep the ER open.
More funding for healthcare in the Kenora and Sioux Lookout areas is among the details of the first year of an agreement between the province and the association representing Ontario’s doctors.
In press releases issued last week, the Ministry of Health and the Ontario Medical Association highlighted what they said is in year one of a 2024-2028 arbitrated agreement between the two. That includes, what the OMA, in a press release, called “targeted programs to ensure physician access in Kenora and Sioux Lookout.”
The same day, the province issued a release that said the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team in the Kenora area has gotten a new “compensation model” to improve physician recruitment and retention.
“The new model offers physicians simplified funding, consolidated and streamlined physician services contracts and a new hourly rate for emergency department coverage,” the province’s release said.
In the Sioux Lookout area, funding will be increased for an existing agreement in place that will pay more for physician travel and working more days in the community. A new hourly rate for emergency department coverage, better compensation for specialists and money to recruit and retain doctors was also included, the ministry said.
“This is a crucial step toward stabilizing health services across the province,” Kimberly Moran, the CEO of the Ontario Medical Association, was quoted as saying in the OMA’s release. “Communities, both large and small, deserve access to timely and high-quality emergency care.”
“This new award lays the foundation for long-term recruitment and retention strategies, while addressing urgent issues like income stabilization for early-career physicians and support for underserviced areas.”
The Kenora and Sioux Lookout-specific improvements are part of a much larger arbitrated deal between the Ministry of Health and the OMA that was first announced in September 2024.
In general, the province and the medical association said it also includes increases to emergency department physician funding, the creation of a new fund for emergency medicine coverage in rural areas and investments to standardize physician compensation for rural and northern Ontario with the aim of stabilizing staffing.
“Today’s strategic investments build on our government’s progress to protect Ontario health care to ensure everyone has reliable access to care, no matter where they live," Health Minister Sylvia Jones was quoted as saying.
“By investing in emergency department staffing and strengthening rural and northern health care, we are making significant strides to conveniently connect Ontario families, especially those in rural and northern communities, to the care they need, where and when they need it.”
