ontario doctors launch campaign to improve health care equity
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dr. albert ng, president of the ontario medical foundation is shown on wednesday, june 21, 2023 at his windsor office.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
concerned that nearly half of ontario residents report not having a family doctor, and 84 per cent of the province’s physicians confirming they’re seeing social determinants of health negatively impacting their patients, a medical organization is launching a campaign to improve health care equity.
the ontario medical foundation is the charitable arm of the ontario medical association and earlier this month received a $150,000 royal bank of canada donation to help kickstart a study on improving accessibility and reduce physician burnout.
“social determinants aren’t the normal medical factors we normally see in chronic illness and disease,” said ontario medical foundation president dr. albert ng, a family physician based in windsor.
“they are a variety of factors that include accessibility, food insecurity, intimate partner violence, transit, homelessness and housing.
“we want to identify where we have the resources to make a difference and we have a mandate to do so in public health care. that’s how we came to choose to focus on health care equity.”
ng said the next steps are to study the many initiatives going on at local levels in the province and explore whether they can be scaled up for more widespread use.
dr. albert ng, president of the ontario medical foundation is shown on wednesday, june 21, 2023 at his windsor office.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
the foundation will also connect with more organizations and communities about partnerships. ng added the foundation is seeking support, financial aid and donations of medical supplies from health care suppliers.
“we have physicians in every corner of the province, so we have an understanding of what is going on,” ng said.
ng said the health care system was designed 60 years ago with a narrow vision of medical care delivery. he said that vision didn’t take into account how to accommodate the socio-economic, racial, gender and sexual preference differences that society now recognizes.
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“about 95 per cent of physicians back then were men,” ng said. “even children’s health care was viewed as just medicine for little people.
“the uniqueness of the lbgtq community wasn’t really recognized by the profession until the aids crisis in the 1980s.”
geography also has emerged as a challenging hurdle in providing equitable health care, especially for indigenous communities.
ng said an indigenous physician based in walpole island recently shared her stories with local physicians about how the community has nowhere near the level of medical resources other municipalities enjoy.
“walpole island is part of our region and they didn’t even have an office for her to set up and she wanted to practice there,” ng said.
he added doctors in northern ontario face 48-hour commutes between many communities.
“i know of doctor who has outfitted a van and he goes from town to town to deliver services,” ng said. “it’s innovations like that we want to study to see if that’s scaleable.”
ng said necessity is often the mother of invention and he expects this project to inspire innovation.
he noted the local area has shown just that with windsor regional hospital’s fast-track program for patients diagnosed with cancer.
“we were also the only community in ontario that was able to put together a field hospital during the covid-19 pandemic,” ng said.
exposing students and under-represented communities to health care and the possibilities of practicing medicine is another idea showing promise at the northern ontario school of medicine. its campmed youth engagement program brings high school students to sudbury and exposes them to medical education with hands-on experience.
“the hope is they’ll consider becoming physicians and remain in their communities,” ng said. “we know physicians tend to set up practices in the areas they attend medical school.
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“we’ve already seen several campmed students go into medicine.”
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