Ontario Premier Doug Ford has appointed a senior Liberal Party figure who served in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet to help his government tackle a primary care problem that sees more than 2.5 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor.
On Monday morning, the government announced Dr. Jane Philpott would serve as the chair and lead of a new primary care team setup to connect every person in the province to primary care within the next five years.
Philpott served as Justin Trudeau’s health minister in Ottawa between 2015 and 2017, with spells as indigenous services minister and treasury board president under the federal Liberal banner.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said her government was “doing the work” to improve access to primary care — and told reporters she was “thrilled” to have the senior Liberal onboard.
“Having Ontario lead Canada, suggests to me that we’re doing okay — but we can do better,” Jones said referring to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
“And when we expand, when we have two new medical schools, when we have every single medical school in the province of Ontario… that is doubling their residency seats, we are getting this done. But it does take time.”
Philpott, who is dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University and director of its School of Medicine, said in a statement that she wanted to see 100 per cent of Ontarians attached to a family doctor or nurse practitioner working in a publicly funded team.
“They’re going to appoint a Liberal to fix health care,” Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said.
“We admire her as well… and yet again it will be another high-profile appointee, another report that will get written, that will get ignored.”
Crombie said Philpott had considered running for the Ontario Liberals at the next election but is now “committed” to her role with primary care for the Ford government.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said primary care issues began under the previous Liberals and have worsened in recent years.
“Here we are, more than six years in, and hallway health care, the lack of family physicians, the lack of primary care is now the status quo,” she said to reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday. “It is unacceptable — this government has wasted so much time.”
Philpott’s role will officially begin with the Ministry of Health at the beginning of December.
She will oversee an “action-oriented group” focused on adding the 2.5-million-plus people the Ontario Medical Association estimates are without a family doctor to the system.
The government said the plan would include ensuring better service on weekends and after-hours, reducing administrative burden on family doctors and other primary care professionals and improving connections to specialists and digital tools.
— with files from The Canadian Press