The president of the Ontario Medical Association visited Newmarket today to advocate for fixing “cracks” in the health-care system.
Dr. Andrew Park visited the community June 27 to speak with Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, along with local physicians and health-care advocates. The visit is part of the OMA’s ongoing advocacy work, with the association asking the government to address issues like wait time and physicians being overly burdened by administrative work.
Park told NewmarketToday that the pandemic has had a lasting impact on the province’s health system, which is still in recovery.
“You don’t just press pause on health care and expect it to resume,” he said. “Three years on, our patients are more complex. They’re sicker and that is placing an additional burden. All of that has downward cascading impacts on emergency departments, family doctors, primary care and the entire system bears the weight of that.”
The most recent OMA report said the primary care system remains in crisis, and that physician burnout is high. However, the report said the government has been taking action on 51 of the 87 recommendations the association made to fix the health-care system in 2021.
Park said the meeting with Gallagher Murphy was positive, with her being a parliamentary assistant to the health minister.
“She understands the health-care profile and the health-care landscape very well. Certainly, she’s very committed to our priorities,” Park said, adding the minister also recognizes those priorities. “There’s common understanding, and we’re hopeful that translates to a continued productive working relationship.”
A request for comment sent to Gallagher Murphy’s office was forwarded to the minister of health.
Minister of health spokesperson Hannah Jensen said the province has worked closely with the OMA over the past year to reduce surgical backlogs and wait times.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the OMA to implement our shared goal of connecting more Ontarians to more convenient care, closer to home,” Jensen said.
The OMA has highlighted issues like burnout, with four in 10 physicians surveyed considering retirement in the next five years.
Park said the province needs to cut back on the paperwork that family doctors have to manage by better connecting different data portals and centralizing a referral system.
“There’s always more to be done,” Park said. “It’s never a static picture.”
The local meetings did not include a visit to Southlake, but Southlake physicians were part of his meetings during the day. Park said he would likely stop at Southlake in another visit to the area in September.
The OMA will continue to advocate for physicians, Park said, by “raising the profile of what our systems needs are, and we’ll continue to do that in the future.”
