Improve Working Conditions – The Not so Simple Solution to Retain Health Professionals
Press Release
January 18th, 2024 – Every Northerner knows just how hard it is to access health care in Northern Ontario. Rural and remote communities celebrate when a new doctor moves to town. A doctor’s departure, on the other hand, immediately leaves many without care.
One of the main reasons why some physicians are reluctant to practice in rural and remote communities in Northern Ontario is their limited ability to consult others, get second opinions, and obtain patient support on complex cases. British Columbia, however, offers a model to increase healthcare coordination to attract and retain more doctors and healthcare professionals in rural, remote, and northern communities.
The Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia (RCCbc) has improved working conditions for physicians in regions and circumstances similar to Northern Ontario’s. The latest publication from Northern Policy Institute, “Rural and Remote Physician Services Coordination in Northern Ontario: A Brief Discussion Paper on the Model from British Columbia” outlines the affordable and powerful changes BC made to strengthen their northern health network.
The RCCbc connects physicians to immediate specialist advice and peer support. It coordinates physician services, supports professional development, facilitates rural and northern-focused medical training, and manages rural locums for clinical deployment. On the public policy side, it facilitates rural health policy discussion by creating a network of rural physicians and healthcare professionals, rural residents, municipal leaders, First Nation, Métis, and Inuit leaders, provincial policymakers, and other community partners.
An organization mirroring the RCCbc in Northern Ontario could:
- connect physicians to rural and remote locums in Northern Ontario;
- support accountability by measuring the progress of programs and strategies, ensuring their implementation, and reporting on their impact;
- support the coordination of northern health programs and physician services;
- reinforce the northern lens in policy, leading to solutions targeted to the needs of rural and remote communities in Northern Ontario—not one-size-fits-all policies; and,
- develop and implement programs tailored to rural and remote Northern Ontario.
When RCCbc was created in British Columbia, early and sustained funding from the provincial government was in place. The same would be needed in Ontario. The health funding structure in Ontario is compatible with the RCCbc model, but (as in BC) the allocation of funding would depend on successful negotiations between rural and remote physicians in Northern Ontario (through the Ontario Medical Association) and the government of Ontario. Those two groups would have to agree to allocate some resources from the Ontario Physician Services Agreement to this new organization.
Want to learn more? Read the report here: https://www.northernpolicy.ca/rural-and-remote-physician-services
-30-
Media Interviews: NPI President & CEO Charles Cirtwill and the author, Bryanne de Castro Rocha, are available for comment. To arrange an interview, please contact:
Charles Cirtwill
President & CEO
1-807-632-7999
ccirtwill@northernpolicy.ca
IHT5
