NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO –Jobs are available. Private and public employers are posting requests for applications on every job board from Kenora to Wawa; however, staff shortages affect every employment sector.
The most concerning issue is the toll that staff shortages are taking on the health care sector in the Northern Region of Ontario.
For residents in Red Lake, a person suffering from a heart attack could mean a three-hour drive to Kenora because Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital was forced to close its emergency room for 24 hours due to a shortage of doctors.
Once in Kenora, there is still a possibility of getting turned away because the Lake of the Woods District Hospital, the ICU, was closed 14 times because of a staffing shortage. The ER is on the verge of closing because of a doctor shortage.
Atikokan General Hospital is on the verge of closing its door as well.
Sara Van Der Loo, chief of staff at Atikokan General Hospital and chair of the Northwest Regional Chief of Staff Council, has said that what happened in Red Lake will likely occur at every small hospital in the Northwest. Van Der Loo said closures were barely averted in Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Kenora, Atikokan, Red Lake, and Geraldton.
One of the reasons for these closures is the lack of competitive salaries. There hasn’t been a wage increase since 2018; due to the Conservative Party’s Bill 124, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and healthcare professionals had their wages suppressed to a maximum of one per cent total compensation for three years.
“Communities cannot be left without their emergency room,” said JoAnne Formanek Gustafson, NDP candidate for Kenora-Rainy River. “Instead of helping resolve the crisis left by the Liberals, Doug Ford wants to cut our health care system even more. Ford’s cuts will devastate our healthcare system and healthcare workers. It means no recruitment to fill the dire shortage of doctors here, and it means our emergency rooms will be forced to shut down. We cannot allow that to happen.“
If elected, the New Democrats are focused on fixing this crisis in our emergency rooms immediately by hiring 300 doctors and 100 specialists in Northern Ontario and increasing residency positions at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
“We have done a consultation with physicians, with physician organizations, with the Ontario Medical Association, and they have come up with concrete ideas,” said Judith Monteith-Farrell, NDP candidate for Thunder Bay-Atikokan. “So, we’ve included them in our platform because they know best what their members would be attracted to. We saw that medical residents if they take a rotation in Northern Ontario, are not provided with any travel costs or assistance with accommodations, so it’s a lot easier for them to stay down in Southern Ontario or close to home.”
Monteith-Farrell explains that funding needs to be available to attract more resident doctors to the Northwest Region. However, the budget for more doctors won’t stop with providing grants for travel and accommodation. They want to create more residency rotation positions to help retain doctors in the North and fund locums to allow travelling doctors to bring a resident with them when they go to a Northern Ontario community to practice, offering the doctor travelling support and giving residents exposure practice in the North.
In addition, the NDP acknowledges the health care sector has its own internal ecosystem. Nurse practitioners, family health physicians, and social services provide a support network to hospitals. Where they take the brunt of the treatable cases allows freeing up medical doctors to provide care to critical cases.
Therefore, the NDP pledged to create a specific strategy to recruit and retain nurses in Northern Ontario, including opportunities for mentorship to ensure that nurses who work or have worked in Northern communities can provide support and training to nurses newly arriving in Northern Ontario.
Moreover, the NDP want to urge the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to expedite the process for international medical graduates to obtain their licensure to work in Northern Ontario. They’ll also work with the federal regulatory body to facilitate mentorship and supervisory roles for senior doctors.
When asked about Doug Ford’s proposed 2.7 billion dollars cut to health care, Anthony Leek, Ontario Liberal Party candidate in Kenora-Rainy River, said, “Ontario Liberals are committed to ensuring access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner within 24 hours regardless of where you live in Ontario,” said “We’ll increase the admission cap on the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, providing more tuition subsidies for students committed to staying in the North long-term. Ontario Liberals will also review the Northern Health Travel Grant annually to ensure it keeps up with rising costs.”
The Liberal Party seems to be on board when it comes to addressing health care concerns for the North. They have also pledged to repeal Bill 124 and incentives residents and locum doctors to stay in the North.
The Progressive Conservative Party declined to comment.
