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Group health center outpatient clinics are just a “Band-Aid” measure
Published on June 13, 2024 • Last updated 18 minutes ago • 5 minute read
Dr. Dominic Nowak is the new president of the Ontario Medical Association. John Rappa/Sudbury Star/Postmedia Network
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The new president of the Ontario Medical Association says giving doctors a healthy support system is one cure for Ontario's primary care crisis.
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Dr. Dominic Nowak, a Toronto family physician who took over at the helm of OMA in early May, says a team-based approach to care that brings together a variety of health professionals, including nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists, is essential to ensuring good patient care and retaining doctors.
“Investing in your team and making sure everyone has a primary care doctor,” Nowak told The Salt Star in an interview Thursday.
According to the OMA, one in five Ontarians currently does not have a family doctor, and unless action is taken, that number will rise to one in four. It is estimated that there are currently about 30,000 people in the province who do not have a family doctor.
The OMA also warns that lack of access to a family doctor leads to poorer health outcomes and increases strain on other parts of the health system.
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“If everyone has a primary care doctor, they won't have to go to the emergency department as often,” Nowak says. “Timely cancer screening reduces costs to the health care system, is more sustainable in the long run, and actually extends life expectancy.”
Dr. Nowak, who works at Women's College Hospital, visited Sault Ste. Marie on Thursday and met with doctors at the Group Health Centre.
“These physicians are so committed to the community and so committed to the health care system here. They want a sustainable, long-term solution,” Nowak said.
The primary care issue has become very visible at GHC recently, with an acute doctor shortage identified as the main culprit leaving around 10,000 Group Health Centre patients (one-sixth of GHC’s total registered patients) without primary care services as of May 31.
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But the province stepped in at the last minute, announcing plans for a new outpatient clinic funded by the Ministry of Health. The province will pump more than $2.8 million over a two-year term to establish an Access Care Clinic at GHC's 170 East St., with the facility set to serve 11,200 patients.
GHC officials said the potential loss of access to care was due to a nationwide shortage of primary care providers, leaving the facility “unable to replace providers who have closed their practices over the past few years.”
While the new outpatient clinic is only a temporary solution to this ongoing issue, Romano, the Sault Ste. Marie councillor who announced the clinic, said it's a positive development for patients who were worried about being completely cut off from primary care services.
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Nowak said now is the time to take a long-term view.
“This clinic is a temporary measure,” he said. “We also need to think about what the long-term plan is for this region, and that is team-based care.”
“What we've heard from our physicians is that they love it here, but at the same time, it's tough working in a health care system that doesn't always support the type of care they want to provide.”
OMA's Prescription for Ontario: Physicians' Five-Point Plan for Better Health Care contains 87 recommendations, including 12 specific to Northern Ontario, one of which calls for increased funding.
Ontario has faced accusations from the Ontario Health Coalition that the GHC situation would never have happened at all if health care had been better funded, a charge the Ministry of Health denies.
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The government will allocate $85 billion to health spending this year, “a total investment roughly equal to the health budgets of all other states and territories combined,” Health Department spokesperson Hannah Jensen told The Salt Star.
As well as enrolling 11,200 patients, two new community primary care teams have also been established, Jensen said.
“In addition, the fiscal year 2024 budget includes approximately $500 million to continue expanding primary care teams across the state,” she added.
Regionally, two family doctors in Blind River recently announced they were leaving the town east of Sault Ste. Marie, leaving four full-time physicians there, and North Shore Health Network was relieved to hear the province will continue to fund temporary substitute physicians.
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But relying on temporary local doctors is not the answer, Nowak said.
“Quick solutions, temporary substitution programs, things that just cover people for a week or two at a time are not the answer here,” he added. “We need to be thinking about a longer-term physician workforce strategy across Ontario, but particularly in the north, where communities desperately need that kind of support for the long term.”
OMA has called on the provincial government to develop a physician workforce strategy to alleviate the physician shortage in Northern Ontario and rural areas, and Nowak said the agency is ready to do all it can to help.
Any plan would have to be “co-designed” with doctors who practice here, as well as those considering practicing, he added.
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“What does it take to make family medicine an attractive, sustainable and economically sustainable profession again, and how do we build a health care system again where people can get the care they need,” Nowak said. “And right now, our health care system is failing people. It's not delivering on its promises to the people of Ontario, including the Sault.”
Nowak said there also needed to be a solution to the administrative burden faced by doctors, who he said often spend 19 hours a week on “unnecessary paperwork and administration.”
“This is exhausting to people,” he added, “so we need to stop doing that. Let doctors focus on being doctors.”
“It all comes down to support.”
Nowak said this is not just the province's purview, but local communities must also do their best.
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He cites the story of his mentor, a family physician in Marathon, Ontario, 300 kilometres from Thunder Bay.
“The reason she's been able to continue practicing is because of the support the community has for her,” Nowak said. “How can we support physicians like her to be able to provide care, to be able to focus on patient care instead of administrative tasks and unnecessary paperwork, and have a team that's there to support them when their loved ones get sick or take time off work if they need to?”
“How do we build a workforce that relies on teams and cross coverage to support the human being behind the care, rather than one person serving every need all the time?”
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