Write to the Provincial Parliament

**CALL TO ACTION BELOW AT END**

Premier Doug Ford,

Health Minister Sylvia Jones,

I am very concerned about the crisis in family medicine resulting from inadequate funding and infrastructure into family medicine healthcare.

It is imperative to recognize that family doctors are not just healthcare professionals but also small business owners who face significant financial challenges due to inadequate funding.

Family doctors in Ontario are paid by the government through funding intended to cover various expenses such as rent, staff salaries, nursing services, electronic medical records, computers, phone bills, utilities, and more. However, this funding has remained stagnant for far too long and has failed to keep up with rising costs and inflation. As a result, family doctors struggle to meet their basic operational expenses.

To shed light on this issue further:

1. Financial Burden: The average cost of running a single doctor’s practice exceeds $100,000 per year. (Source: Ontario Medical Association)
2. Inadequate Compensation: Unlike salaried professionals or employees who receive benefits such as 1-yr maternity leaves, pensions, sick leave, vacation pay, health and dental benefits from their employers, family doctors do not have access to these benefits despite their crucial role in our healthcare system.
3. Uncompensated Workload: Family doctors provide upto 20 hrs/wk of UNPAID administrative work to manage incoming results, bloodwork, diagnostic imaging – xray, CT, MRI reports, pharmacy prescription requests, specialists’ requests and notifications, without receiving any additional compensation. (Source: Ontario College of Family Physicians)
4. Recruitment Challenges: The above financial constraints faced by family doctors discourages new graduates from entering primary care practice. (Source: Canadian Medical Association). The government can increase medical school spots, but in the last decade, 20% FEWER medical students are choosing Family Medicine. (Source: CARMS statistics)
5. Retention Challenges: Once Family Physicians finish their training, FEWER family medicine graduates are choosing to ACTUALLY PRACTICE Family Medicine. Choosing instead to work in the ER, hospital, focused areas – sports medicine, or cosmetics clinics or alternative careers such as working for the federal government or consulting. These positions often pay much better, do not have unpaid administrative burden, and require much less business responsibilities.

Up to 47% of physicians (includes family doctors and specialists) polled by Statistics Canada stated they planned on leaving the profession within the next 5 years. (Source: Statistics Canada )

This does not take into account those planning to RETIRE within the next 5 years. Many have already begun leaving, a phenomenon known as #DOCXIT.

I believe it is essential for our government representatives to take immediate action towards fair compensation for family doctors in order to maintain a robust primary care system that serves all Ontarians effectively.

I demand that the government prioritize:

1. Overhead support
   Specifically, we request funds of 35% of gross OHIP billings indexed to the consumer price index (CPI) to keep up with inflation and rising expenses over time to help support running our offices. We also request funding to help support the initial setup costs of starting a clinic (details to be determined).
   
2. Paid administrative time
   Specifically, we request funding at an hourly rate of $150/hr for currently unpaid administrative work. The total number of hours billable for this time would be up to 1hr/week/100 rostered patients.

HOW?

The Physician Service Agreement (PSA) is a negotiation between the Ontario Government (Ministry of Health / OHIP) and ALL physicians in Ontario (family medicine or otherwise). The fees negotiated during the PSA negotiation are per the government budget for all healthcare.

**CALL TO ACTION**

Considering Family Medicine is the foundation of healthcare and Ontario’s ongoing Family Medicine and Healthcare crisis – I URGE YOU to PRIORITIZE FAMILY MEDICINE FUNDING during the CURRENT PSA negotiations (as recommended above).

Learn more about the TIME SENSITIVE / IMMINENT PSA negotiations that are ACTIVELY TAKING PLACE RIGHT NOW @ https://www.oma.org/newsroom/ontario-medical-review/latest-issue/spring-2023/preparations-begin-for-the-next-physician-services-agreement/

It is high time we value the dedication and hard work of our family doctors who play a vital role in keeping our communities healthy. Let us stand together to ensure they receive fair compensation that reflects their contributions.

I encourage you to learn more about my concerns, shared with more than 30,000 other Ontarians, at www.oufp.ca.

I would appreciate an opportunity to meet and share my concerns in person and encourage you to meet the coordinators of the OUFP by contacting them at www.oufp.ca/#connect.

Sincerely,

A concerned Ontarian,

[YOUR name]