February 22, 2024
When will the Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic get the money they have been asking for since 2021?
QUEEN’S PARK – During Wednesday’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) called out Ford’s conservatives for yet another shameful milestone. Sudbury’s new private for-profit Nurse Practitioner Clinic charging patients money for each visit.
“The nurse practitioner who opened the clinic said, and I will quote her words, “Had the Capreol clinic received funding to hire a permanent position, I would have likely stayed there.” I have hand delivered modest funding proposals from Capreol Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic to the Minister numerous times since 2021,” said Gélinas. “We have underemployed Nurse Practitioners in Northern Ontario. They would love to care for us in the public system, but this government is forcing them to open private clinics.“
“Every day brings new reports of healthcare workers leaving our public system,” said Gélinas. “The numbers reveal that this government is diverting funds from the public system to fund a private two-tier health care system. We can’t retain our homegrown professionals in the public system because the Conservative government still refuses to fund permanent positions in public not for profit clinics. The NDP will not stand by while this happens. We demand this government takes the healthcare crisis seriously and commit to saving Medicare, where care is based on needs not on ability to pay!”
“When will the Capreol NPL clinic get the money they have been asking for since 2021?” asked MPP Gélinas. *Minister Jones responded that the people of Capreol should be satisfied with the recent funding announcement for the Chapleau and District Family Health team. Showing once again how little, they know about Northern Ontario- when Highway 144 is open it is a 5.5 hours drive from Capreol to Chapleau.
In a presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic affairs at the Radisson Hotel in Sudbury in January of this year, Executive Director of the Capreol Clinic, Nurse Practitioner Amanda Rainville stated “We (the Capreol clinic) are at full capacity and are unable to intake any new patients with our current funding.”