March 4, 2024
Ontario’s patients lining up outside in the cold in the hope of accessing primary care
QUEEN’S PARK – During today’s Question Period, NDP Health Critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked Minister of Health Sylvia Jones to explain why Kingston residents were forced to wait hours in the cold last week for the chance to gain access to a primary care provider.
“Last week hundreds of people in Kingston got up at 3:00 am to go stand outside in the cold and wind for a chance of gain access to primary care. How can the minister explain that?”
The CBC reported that the CDK Family Medicine and Walk-In Clinic in Kingston held rostering days last week that saw hundreds of patients, line up for blocks hoping to register with a family doctor.
“The minister should be ashamed. Sick people, frail, elderly people standing out side for hours. This is happening under her watch. Everyone agrees the solution is in interdisciplinary care. Where physicians work along social workers, nurses, dietitians, health promoters. You have received solutions from hundreds and hundreds of communities. Why are you only funding 78 of them?”
Last month Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced over money for 78 “new and expanded primary care teams” across the province as part of a bilateral health-care deal with the federal government, while hundreds of communities go without.