March 7, 2024
Residents of Cat Lake need Minister’s help
QUEEN’S PARK – During today’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to help the residents of Cat Lake regain access to health care services.
“Equity of access to health care is the responsibility of the Minister of Health. For decades, the residents of Cat Lake had access to excellent nurses and nurse practitioners, but their nursing station burned down last week. They can not just go to the closest walk-in clinic, this is a fly-in First Nation community. They have no access to care.
Is the Minister going to simply add the 650 residents of Cat Lake, to the 10,000 residents of Sault Ste Marie to the 2.2 million Ontarians who do not have access to primary care? Or is she going to take her responsibilities and work on a solution to give the residents of Cat Lake access to care?”
According to figures released by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, Ontario is on track to have more than 4.4 million Ontarians without access to primary care by 2026.