Deal could add doctors in region
Local officials anxious to see how area benefits from $3.1B agreement
A `historic' new $3.1-billion bilateral agreement between Ottawa and Ontario promises to add more local health care workers and reduce emergency room wait times in Windsor-essex.
The new funds are aimed at reducing the current strain on Ontario's health care system and is being described as the first of several bilateral agreements over the next 10 years that will total $8.4 billion.
The funding will help improve accessibility to family physicians, shrink emergency room wait times and surgery backlogs, and be used to hire more health care workers across the province, the two senior governments say.
“Residents here in Windsor-essex and across Canada are not getting the health care system that they deserve,” said MP Irek Kusmierczyk (L — Windsor-tecumseh).
“I talk to residents all the time, and they raise health care as one of the top issues.
“We're seeing emergency rooms being overwhelmed, we're seeing people waiting forever for surgeries, and we're also seeing healthcare workers getting burnt out because they're shouldering more and more of the work.”
With approximately 30,000 to 40,000 residents in the area not even having a family doctor, “there is an absolute acute shortage of family doctors in Windsor-essex,” Kusmierczyk told the Star. Provincewide, he added, roughly 2.3 million people are in the same situation.
“The reason this is a big issue is because a lot of folks end up in the ER. The issues that they're coming with are not necessarily emergency issues, they're things that could be treated by a family doctor.”
Windsor Regional Hospital reports that 1,876 of its total of 1,972 nursing positions are currently filled.
A recent survey conducted by Unifor Local 2458, which represents roughly 2,500 health care workers in Windsor and Essex County, points to burnout among staff.
Of the 750 Canadian Union of Public Employees workers surveyed, 62 per cent said they were dealing with exhaustion and high stress levels, 41 per cent reported dreading going to work and two in five are considering leaving their jobs.
The new funding is part of the federal government's strategy to inject more than $200 billion into national health care over the next decade.
Within the funding framework, $25 billion is allocated through tailored bilateral agreements with the provinces and territories. The agreement with Ontario is the fifth announced so far, after British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta
and Nova Scotia.
“This is a historic agreement between the province of Ontario and the federal government,” said Windsor Regional Hospital spokesperson Steve Erwin.
“Similar to recent significant investments by the Ford government in pediatric emergency department diversion and health human resource recruitment incentives, we will look forward to working with our provincial health partners on strategic investments to advance health care in our region and across Ontario.”
The plan is expected to add thousands of health care workers, including family doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and social workers to the current ranks. It will also open up 700 spots in medical education programs across the province.
In a social media post Thursday, local MPP and Ford government member Andrew Dowie (PC — Windsor-tecumseh) thanked Ottawa and said the province will continue working with federal officials on “long-term stable funding to ensure Ontarians get the health care they need & deserve.”
Ontario's Foreign Credential Recognition Program will also be streamlined to allow more internationally educated health care workers to enter the workforce faster. That program follows the federal government's $86-billion announcement last month to recognize 6,600 internationally educated health care workers.
According to Kusmierczyk, the process required toward professional recognition in the health care fields can cost an individual upward of $10,000.
“We're trying to take some of the cost out of it for the individual doctors, nurses and PSWS,” he said, “and work with the province to cut down the time it takes to get recognized, because that's the biggest hurdle.”
Erwin highlighted the local hospital's continuing efforts to drive timely patient care and attract more health care professionals to the hospital.
Windsor Regional Hospital recently announced that, bolstered by another funding boost from the Ontario Ministry of Health, it will expand its pediatric emergency division to offer services seven days a week starting March 1.
The local hospital's plan aimed at addressing nursing shortages was also widely successful. In the first year since the Community Commitment Program for Nurses launched in June 2022, more than 200 new nurses signed up.
The new bilateral agreement comes in response to an “unprecedented” number of temporary closings of vital hospital services across Ontario over the past three years.
The Ontario Health Coalition reported that, in 2023, emergency rooms in the province were closed 868 times due to staff shortages. On 316 occasions, an urgent care centre closed its doors.
Essex County Medical Society president Dr. Grant Fortowsky was unavailable for comment ahead of deadline.
Provinces and territories are required to publicly report their progress in meeting targets set by the Canadian Institute of Health Information.