EDITOR'S NOTE: A version of this article originally appeared on SooToday on Feb. 21. It is being republished here for readers who may have missed it.
United Steelworkers Local 2251 president Mike Da Prat joined Ontario NDP politicians, fellow labour officials and an Algoma Steel retiree at a news conference held Wednesday in Toronto.
The group voiced its concerns over the Group Health Centre’s Jan. 25 announcement that 10,000 of its patients will lose access to their family doctor and be de-rostered as of May 31, 2024.
“I am one of those individuals,” Da Prat said, joining Wednesday's conference by phone.
“Due to a severe shortage of primary care providers provincially and nationally we have been unable to find replacements for providers who have closed their practices over the last several years at Group Health Centre,” said Dr. Jodie Stewart, Algoma District Medical Group CEO and chair in the Jan. 25 GHC announcement.
SEE: LETTER: Group Health doctor pens passionate defence of ‘incredibly special’ place
Da Prat said a new governance model for GHC, brought into being by the province’s former Liberal government and carried on by the Progressive Conservatives, has damaged the original aim to provide healthcare for Algoma Steel employees and other Sault and area residents.
“In 1959 steelworkers were looking for the ability to provide good healthcare to its members but even though it was primarily for the members first it included all people of Sault Ste. Marie.”
A membership fee for GHC members was originally put in place before OHIP came into being and GHC’s patient population grew.
“It’s both governments that are to blame here,” Da Prat said, referring to Ontario’s former Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne and the current Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford.
“The Group Health Centre continued working until 2012 and the Ministry of Health came in and negotiated a Group Health Centre funding and governance agreement. They got involved in changing the governance of Group Health from the model that it was to the model that it is today. Now if a physician leaves or retires his roster is removed from the enrolment list of the Group Health Centre. Now what the new model does is it makes sure that the most senior people of the enrolled population, based on the fact that they are more likely to be with the older doctors ready to retire, will in fact be kicked out.”
“All the members enrolled should be entitled to have whatever services are available. In other words they should be distributed across the available medical group. It was never intended that we belonged to a specific doctor and that if that doctor were to leave we would end up orphaned. I myself have been through three doctors.”
Da Prat was asked if steelworkers would take legal action against GHC or the provincial government over any perceived breach of agreement.
“We are looking into having meetings to discuss the governance with Group Health Centre. If we can’t come to a satisfactory conclusion we have retained legal assistance to look into the governance issues,” Da Prat said.
“An additional 6,000 patients are at risk of losing primary care in the near future if current trends continue” said Algoma District Medical Group CEO and chair Dr. Stewart in January.
That followed news that over the past six years close to 3,000 patients were de-rostered by GHC.
“The other problem that exists is that people (doctors) don’t want to come to Sault Ste. Marie whether we’re naturally gifted or not," Da Prat said.
"What the government needs to do, especially the provincial government, is they need to recruit from overseas individuals that would be happy to come, and for a guaranteed path to citizenship, would have to agree to work in the northern isolated communities. As far as Toronto is concerned, Sudbury is north and that’s good enough. This is not a comment on Sudbury but Sudbury has much more services than we do. We align more with the isolated communities where a lot of doctors don’t want to come and stay and they need to be attracted. The Ministry is supposed to oversee health, not be a bureaucratic organization that doesn't care and has a ‘one size fits all’ for healthcare.”
Da Prat added that nurses used to have nursing aides but that nurses now are overworked and burnt out.
Da Prat also mentioned the plight of doctors bogged down with paperwork that takes up much of their time.
That has been identified by many doctors as a major source of physician burnout and has led many medical school students to shy away from family medicine and pursue specialized medicine instead.
“This government requires extensive notes for people who are sick and on sick leave. If the doctor simply says ‘I treated this person and this person needs to be off for three weeks’ they bombard that doctor with piles and piles of forms that need to be filled out,” Da Prat said.
Doctors also have to personally seek specialists for patients.
That is a task, Da Prat said, that should be handled by clerical support staff.
Doctors have stated that such help is needed, along with that of other health team members such as physiotherapists, mental health workers and diabetes treatment workers in treating patients.
“I might look a little old to be an orphan but I’m one of the 10,000 in Sault Ste. Marie who longer has a doctor. I’ve been with the Group Health Centre for 35 years and all of a sudden I get a note saying thank you very much for being a member of the Group Health Centre, you are no longer,” said Burnie Thorp, a retired Sault steelworker in attendance at Wednesday’s news conference.
“We have paid for this healthcare and so we think it is our right and we feel it’s incumbent on this government to make sure that they deliver on what we feel and what we believe to be our right,” Thorp said.
Thorp said $1.1 million in provincial government funding for two Sault-based healthcare facilities - Sault Community Health Centre and Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services - announced by Sault MPP Ross Romano Feb. 2, trips to walk-in clinics or Sault Area Hospital’s emergency department do not address the crisis faced by rostered GHC patients.
Wednesday’s news conference included Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP leader and Leader of the Official Opposition, New Democrat France Gelinas, Nickel Belt MPP and health critic, Myles Sullivan, United Steelworkers (USW) District 6 director and Jamie West, New Democrat Sudbury MPP and labour critic.
“There are many concrete actions this government can take,” Gelinas said, calling the Group Health Centre “a gem” in healthcare.
“We do have a shortage of family physicians but we do have other healthcare professionals that are available to come and work in Sault Ste. Marie. In Sudbury we have an unemployed nurse practitioner opening up a private clinic. She wants to help people that don’t have access but she cannot find a job that will pay her. Give the Group Health Centre money so that they can hire social workers, dieticians, nurses, nurse practitioners and other healthcare professionals to be part of a team so that they can continue to look after all of their members while they continue their really hard work to recruit more physicians. Yes, for many things you will need physicians but for many others you can be seen, helped and receive care from other registered healthcare professionals who can help you with your mental health, diabetes, sore back or wrist. The Group Health Centre has been asking for money for this for a long time.”
Sault MPP Ross Romano said a task force of local health professionals to address the doctor shortage in the Sault will be formed and wants that task force to have its first meeting on March 1.
An Ontario NDP release follows:
QUEEN’S PARK – Leader of Ontario’s Official Opposition, Marit Stiles, was joined by United Steelworkers to call for action as over 10,000 people in Sault Ste Marie, mostly seniors and retirees, were de-rostered from Group Health Centre. The only clinic in the area, Group Health has lost physicians to retirements and resignations, with no replacements available.
“High-risk and vulnerable ageing seniors and elders in Sault Ste Marie are being left without access to care at a time in their life when they need it most,” said Stiles. “After six years in government, Doug Ford and the Conservatives have failed to address the doctor and nurse shortage in the North, and we are witnessing the results.”
The next closest emergency room is hours away.
“Ontario’s New Democrats have been sounding the alarm on this for years," said NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (MPP, Nickel Belt). "We have underemployed nurse practitioners in Northern Ontario who would love to join an interdisciplinary primary care team. They have the knowledge and skills to provide primary care to people in need, but the government refuses to fund them. People’s health and lives are being put at risk due to this government’s failure. Where are they expected to go for their prescription renewal or chronic disease management? What happens when they have a bad fall? This is unacceptable.”
“Doug Ford and the Conservatives need to act. Cut the red tape for internationally trained doctors and nurses; create incentives for health care professionals to work in the north and pay them better; and stop funnelling public dollars into the privatization of health care,” said Stiles.