We have to write this letter with a heavy heart as healthcare has touched rock bottom in most  provinces. In the past few years, many family physicians are reducing patients, walk-in clinics have been decreasing and/or are reducing hours.

People can't find new family physicians and have to either keep suffering or resort to virtual doctors. Unfortunately, virtual doctors do not offer consistencies and therefore a patient's files is not kept in one central repository. 

Getting an MRI referral is pathetic. Once a doctor gives an MRI referral, there are long queues and no visibility to timeframes of when the MRI will take place. The patient is left in the dark for extended periods of time.

Seeing a specialist is also challenging. If a person needs an Orthopedic Surgeon or another type of specialist, the wait time is said to be close to a year if not more.  Patients have no choice but to suffer with pain as they continue to wait for the next step. 

We urgently call on the Federal Government to establish healthcare benchmarks for all healthcare services for all Canadians and have provinces target to achieve these benchmarks. These healthcare services include, but are not limited to, finding a family physician, seeing a specialist, all medical tests as well as PSWs. 

People are dependent on the lawmakers. Canadians are looking for best in class healthcare standards. There is a talk of timely healthcare but timely isn’t defined. Request is to define benchmarks for each healthcare service. Please don't fail us. Thank you.