MANITOULIN—France Gelinas, Member of Provincial Parliament for the Nickel Belt riding and NDP Health and Long-Term Care critic says that Northern Ontario hospitals and areas like Manitoulin Island, deserve the same access to funding, services and care as southern Ontario, but the provincial government is not meeting these needs.
“The people of Manitoulin Island deserve equitable access to health care and supports for its hospitals, physicians and nurses as those in southern Ontario. I will be bringing forward the concerns that were raised at the meeting I had with Manitoulin Health Centre officials,” Ms. Gelinas told the Expositor after a meeting she had with hospital officials last week. “Manitoulin Island was a good site to hear my many questions so I have more examples of things that do not make sense for the North due to the lack of support from the government. Equitable access is needed in the North to health care in all areas. But if the government is not providing the funding support to put all these programs in place; it is certainly not because we don’t have people that can’t or don’t know how to provide these services. We certainly do. But we have a government that obviously doesn’t support Northerners and Northern Ontario.”
“If there is a need identified for a multi-million-dollar highway in southern Ontario the government has the money for that, but if there is a need for funding for a chemotherapy program at a hospital in the North they don’t,” said MPP Gelinas.
“We talked about how the MHC is handling the shortage of nurses and physicians,” said MPP Gelinas. “When you see emergency departments at both hospitals (Mindemoya and Little Current) that have 10,000 visits in a year and the local hospitals have to pay for locum nursing staff (to the tune of $1.4 million of an unfunded burden for the hospitals) to keep up with the demand it is not right, and is unfair. If this was the case in southern Ontario a hospital would not have this problem because the government would make sure the funds are available.”
“There are extensive renovations that have been done in the Mindemoya emergency department and are still ongoing at the Mindemoya site, that the MHC is not getting funding support on,” said MPP Gelinas. “A lot of the things that the hospitals are having to do are dictated by the government and to meet standards set by the province, but there is no government support for this.”
“The hospitals are doing the right thing with zero help from the government,” said MPP Gelinas. “Obviously the government funding streams in southern Ontario are not the same for Northern Ontario. It is like the northern rural populations do not exist.”
“Everyone at the meeting (with MHC last week) said, ‘why is the government fighting Bill 124,” said MPP Gelinas.
MPP Gelinas said, “Look at the shortage of nurses and hospitals having to pay locums. Private locum nursing agencies are making huge profits and the nurses are making about $62 per hour. Why don’t we regulate all of this. The government is okay with private agencies making such huge profits, millions of dollars on the back of nurses and they are not willing to give even a one percent increase in wages to non-agency nurses.”
Doctor Maurianne Reade said, “I was able to have a separate discussion with Ms. Gelinas in the middle of the tour she took of the Mindemoya hospital emergency department and we discussed our concerns with the strains on our health care system. “I wouldn’t be able to speak on nursing numbers although there are definitely shortages and the costs of having to bring in locums are significant.” She pointed currently there are six full-time equivalent doctor/physician funded positions at each of the hospitals in Mindemoya and Little Current, two full-time paid doctors in Gore Bay and one in Manitowaning.
“Even with six doctors at each MHC site it is very hard to staff that and keep up,” said Dr. Reade. “And considering that each site sees over 10,000 emergency room visits each year, there are not enough doctors to address these demands. And we all have our own offices to see patients and emergency situations. We do need more physicians.”
“Hopefully through negotiations the OMA is having with the province, a new contract will be in place and we will be able to recruit new physicians soon,” said Dr. Reade. “This would be the first time in 20 years the cap on six doctors at each facility would be increased but the workload for physicians, and nurses has gone up considerably.”
“I also talked to Ms. Gelinas about the shortage of the nurses we are facing and the current need to bring in locum nurses and the costs involved,” said Dr. Reade.
“The fundamental idea of the new contract is to stabilize the rural work force,” stated Dr. Reade. “It is at the negotiation table now and fingers crossed, over the next month and a half, we will get some good news. We are glad this is getting attention that is long overdue. From a physician position if things work out in the contract it will help, but there is the concurrent issue of the problem in nursing shortage that hospitals are facing. The government needs to make sure that there are enough nurses in hospitals and that they are being paid properly and supports are put in place.”
Paula Fields, president and chief executive officer of the MHC said, “it was wonderful to have France Gelinas here to hear and understand the challenges and situation we are facing. We felt honoured she would meet with us and discuss the issues small hospitals are facing. She heard us loud and clear.”
“One of our suggestions that the province has not put in place is new grad initiatives that were previously in place for registered nurses,” said Ms. Fields. Up to six months ago she said the province was providing funding through a program that saw small hospitals able to hire new nurse graduates, who would be hired to work with a senior nurse for six months to develop the confidence, skills and independence that nurses require. The province eliminated the program and funding being provided to small hospitals about six months ago and the return of this program is something the MHC and other hospitals have been advocating for, she explained.
“Ms. Gelinas heard our concerns with (provincial) funding models for small hospitals in the coming years, and the human resource challenges we are facing,” said Ms. Fields. “It was a very good meeting, Ms. Gelinas has a deep understanding of our challenges and said she would bring these concerns forward in the house and hopefully the government makes the necessary changes for small rural hospitals.”
“It was an interesting meeting, they identified numerous areas where their budget is short,”
said Ms. Gelinas. She added, “the hospitals are obviously doing all they can, providing the necessary services that are needed for patients. They are doing a great job. And they are being as efficient as possible, but the government needs to step up and provide more support. The people of Manitoulin Island deserve equitable access to the health services that are provided in southern Ontario.”
