Letter: Grey-Bruce Residents Deserve Real Answers on Primary Care

Norah Beatty calls for answers on primary care, healthcare funding, and recent provincial legislation in Grey-Bruce.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor,

I read with interest the announcement, in the April 23 Meaford Independent print edition, that the province is investing $4.2 million to connect over 9,000 patients to primary care in Bruce and Grey Counties. While this sounds like good news, is it really?

Will there be enough trained doctors willing to enter general practice medicine or even replace the number of retiring physicians by 2029?

The misleading information from the Ford government is gaslighting citizens once again.

An article in The Star in Dec. 2024, cited a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information that said the number of family doctors is barely keeping up with population growth, doctors are seeing fewer patients and the complexities of aging patients are taking more time.

Nurse practitioners (NP) could help solve the doctor shortage and since they provide necessary medical care should be funded according to the Canada Health Act. The Federal Government told the Provinces in 2025 to start funding NPs by April 2026.

Many have, but Doug Ford has not. Why not? Not his priority.

He now has until April, 2027 to do so or we will be paying the financial penalties the Federal government enforces.

Currently, NPs in Ontario are either not practising or have to charge patients in a private for profit model. Some of this new money will help health centres to hire an NP but instead of OHIP directly funding them the health team will have to take the money out of their yearly budget which decreases spending that could otherwise support other services they provide.

Many communities do not have a family health team or community health centre, including Meaford. Ford refused to fund the Municipality’s request to create one a few years ago.

Why? And is our current MPP, Paul Vickers, lobbying on our behalf to get one?

How many people currently do not have a family doctor in Grey Bruce Owen Sound?
An article in The Owen Sound Current, in Jan. 2025, reported an estimated 6,000 people without a doctor in Owen Sound.

The same article said a 2023 report from the Owen Sound Primary Care Recruitment and Retention Task Force estimated 15,000 were not rostered in the broader area served by 21 physicians.

At the time of that report 1,700+ in Chatsworth, 2,700 in Georgian Bluffs and 4,600 in Owen Sound had no doctor. These numbers do not include any for Bruce County, which is sharing the just-announced funding.

The 2024 ROMA report said rural areas are losing primary care providers at 12% per year which is four times faster than in urban areas.

Would Paul Vickers MPP explain how, when and where the new money just announced will be allocated and give us the current number of people without primary care in our County?

Healthcare has been privatized and starved at all levels since the Ford Conservatives were elected in 2018. In that campaign, Ford stated he would not privatize healthcare. He lied and we know he has lied ever since, or actively mislead, on a number of issues.

Constantly stating that his government has made historic investments in health and education is lying/gaslighting. When inflation and population growth are taken into consideration, it is clear that massive cuts have been made not only in these two sectors but several areas.

The Auditor General and Financial Accountability Office have reported on the extent of these cuts. Conservatives of today do not support public services but prefer to cut public funding, to privatize and to give our taxes to private enterprise while creating a ballooning, historic debt that future generations will have to pay without the benefit of necessary public services like health and education.

Anti-Ford protests have been taking place monthly across the province and in Meaford and Owen Sound since February. People are exhausted and furious about the lying and corruption, privatization, wasteful, incompetent spending and cuts, $13.9 billion deficit and growing, destruction of democracy, no accountability, no jobs, no affordable housing and his refusal to end predatory grocery prices.

The protests will continue, and the next one is May 30 at Meaford Hall. Please plan to attend so a strong message is sent to Ford and his MPPs.

Do not be fooled by announcements that are helpful but too late and too little to fix a serious and growing problem.

The scariest recent development is the passage of Bill 97, which changes Freedom of Information law and gives this provincial government cover to act without being held accountable, and retroactively applies to requests for information from the last several decades.

Our MPP was not present for the final vote but did vote with the government for the second reading. He recently told a constituent that he voted that way because he believes his constituents wanted him to.

A growing number of people in Grey Bruce Owen Sound do not agree with his vote. He is supposed to represent all of us. Is he working for us or for Ford?

I urge you to email, write a letter or phone Paul Vickers to express your opinion. Are this government’s actions what you voted for? If not, come out to the peaceful protest on May 30.

Sincerely,
Norah Beatty
Meaford, ON

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Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.