Premier calls for increased testing
Ford mulls reorganizing public health system after pandemic is over
TORONTO—Premier Doug Ford issued a sharp rebuke to some of Ontario’s regional medical officers of health Tuesday, blaming them for the province’s inconsistent rate of COVID-19 testing and urging them to do more to increase it.
At his daily briefing, Ford expressed frustration with some of the top doctors who he said are not ordering enough testing in their regions.
Ford promised change, but declined to name which regions — and which medical officers — he believed weren’t performing enough tests.
“They know who they are,” he said. “Start picking up your socks and start doing testing. I don’t know what the big problem is with them testing. It’s frustrating as anything.”
The province reported Tuesday that 10,654 tests were completed in the previous 24 hours, the lowest total in five days and well below the government’s target of 16,000.
The tally came a day after the premier said his province is now conducting the most tests per day in Canada, both in terms of volume and per capita.
Experts say ramping up testing will be key to containing the virus and lifting strict public health measures put in place to slow its spread.
Ontario had been testing well below its capacity, and Ford had called for that to change.
The premier said Tuesday that after the pandemic is over, his government may reconsider the current public health system, which employs 34 separate medical officers of health in different regions.
“Some just aren’t performing,” he said. “I’m calling them out right now. You’ve got to pick up the pace ... It’s a lot easier to have one person in control than 34 people in control.”
The Progressive Conservative government announced in the 2019 budget that it planned to begin a sweeping merger of public health units by 2020-21, saying at the time it would strengthen the system.
The government said it had conducted a review of the province’s public health units and believed their structure did not allow for consistent service delivery.
Health Minister Christine Elliott appointed a special adviser last fall to conduct consultations with municipalities that had warned the amalgamation — coupled with changes to public health cost-sharing with the province — could jeopardize services and result in front-line staff layoffs.