The OUFP Call for the Immediate Resignation of Health Minister Sylvia Jones for her Insensitive and Dangerous Comments Regarding the Family Medicine Crisis

May 8, 2024

for immediate release - 
Write to your provincial policymakers to take action. Consider using the OUFP template at www.oufp.ca/mpp 

On May 06, 2024 the Physician Services Agreement (the physician payment negotiation) entered into Arbitration between the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the Ministry of Health (MOH). 

We have now learned through the publicly released details of the Ministry of Health's Arbitration briefs that the government has no intentions on taking appropriate steps to address the family medicine crisis in Ontario. In fact, the Minister of Health Sylvia Jones’ response to the worsening crisis in family medicine is to outright deny there is any crisis at all. Her comments state “there is no concern of a diminished supply of physicians” and that “retention and recruitment is not a major concern”. This is a slap in the face to Ontarians, particularly to the 2.3 million in Ontario who do not have access to a family doctor and for those who have recently or will soon lose their family doctor due to inadequate funding and increasing adminstrative burden. The Ontario College of Family Physicians projects that by the year 2026 that 1 in 4 Ontarians will not have a family doctor. 

These comments are insensitive and dangerous. They also signal that the Ontario government has abandoned addressing the healthcare needs of Ontarians and is akin to denying to recognize Ontarians’ basic right to access universal healthcare. As such, the OUFP is calling on the public to support the call for an immediate resignation of Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones. 

Our current healthcare system is simply unacceptable. Ontario deserves better. 

 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Ramsey Hijazi, Dr. Alex Duong and Dr. Vakar Khan on behalf of 

The Ontario Union of Family Physicians

To contact and discuss this release with OUFP, please contact us at oufpmembers@gmail.com

 

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