The prescription for Bradford and Innisfil is a much-needed infusion of more family doctors.
That’s the message from local health and municipal leaders in response to a partially redacted report released by the Ontario Liberal Party in late November.
That report claims to contain data dated to October 2024 from the province’s Ministry of Health, which shows Bradford has a population of 48,693 but only 30,182 people are rostered to one of the 24 family physicians practising in town.
Of those, nine doctors are close to retirement age, with six ages 60 to 64 and three age 65 or older. As a result, 8,745 patients are rostered with a doctor age 60 to 64 and 2,628 patients are rostered with a doctor older than 65.
According to the report, the situation in Innisfil is even worse, with a population of 48,299 from which only 11,135 people are rostered to one of the nine family physicians practising in that town, but none of those were listed as being close to retirement age.
Bonnie Crombie, leader of the provincial Liberals, called the situation a “crisis” across the province “leaving millions of people without a family doctor or at risk of losing theirs.”
The report also claims that 4.1 million Ontarians are not on a family doctor’s roster and there are 205 municipalities where no family physicians are signing up new patients.
While the most recent annual data for 2023 from the Ontario Physician Reporting Centre confirmed physician counts by municipality, physician ages were only available by Ontario Health Region or based on the borders of the now-defunct Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
The Liberal-released report excludes physicians practising under the traditional “fee-for-service” model, which exclusively pays doctors for each time they see patients. It also excludes children seen by pediatricians as well as people who regularly see nurse practitioners or community health clinics.
That was a point of contention for Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, who didn’t directly answer questions about the authenticity of the data in the report, but did criticize the accuracy of how the information was being portrayed.
“The data used by the Liberals is incomplete and fails to account for millions of patients receiving primary care,” Jensen said via email.
She also criticized the Liberals for removing 50 medical residency seats in 2015, while touting the efforts of the Progressive Conservatives since forming government in 2018, such as: adding 15,000 new physicians to the province, expanding the medical school education system, removing barriers for internationally educated physicians, investing in expanding primary care teams, and working to expand the learn and stay grant to connect 1.36 million more people to primary care.
“While Ontario is leading the country with nearly 90 per cent of Ontarians having a primary care provider, we continue to build on our progress to ensure everyone who wants a primary care provider has access to one over the next five years,” she said.
Local responses
In addition to efforts from the province, local health teams and municipalities are also working to provide residents with better access to care, especially family doctors.
According to Ontario Health, an agency created by the provincial government to modernize Ontario’s health-care system, Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) organize and deliver services in local communities.
Generally, Bradford falls under the Northern York South Simcoe Ontario Health Team (NYSSOHT), while Innisfil falls under the Barrie and Area OHT, though geographical boundaries aren’t the only consideration.
Neither was able to independently confirm the accuracy of the data in the report released by the Liberals, but Grace Han, community integration lead for NYSSOHT, explained that as of March 2022, roughly 11.3 per cent of adults in Bradford did not have access to a primary care provider, such as a family doctor or nurse practitioner, according to INSPIRE-PHC data.
With that in mind, Han said NYSSOHT is currently working with providers through its primary care network, to which all providers — including family physicians and nurse practitioners — are welcome to join.
“The Northern York South Simcoe Ontario Health Team is committed to improving the delivery of health-care services for everyone in our communities,” she said.
The health team has also been looking to home-based care, virtual consultation and community outreach programs to make primary care more accessible.
Last month, the health team and town of Bradford West Gwillimbury signed an agreement with Southlake Health to improve health facilities and resources in town.
According to Bradford Mayor James Leduc, the town also periodically discusses challenges local doctors face in serving the community.
“While most have generally been relatively successful in attracting new doctors to their practices, we do hear about difficulties with: poor data sharing among primary care physicians, specialists and hospitals; the administrative burdens they face; and, lack of adequate office space for new/expanded practices and clinics,” he said via email.
While the town has advocated for the province to address some of those issues, others could be handled through the recent agreement, and in the past, the town has opened and rented out two facilities to care providers.
The town acquired 26 Holland St. E. in 2018 and began leasing it to a medical clinic in 2019, and before that renovated the old library location at 100 Holland Court, first leasing it as a medical centre in 2014.
Meanwhile the Barrie and Area OHT has a program specifically dedicated to attracting new family physicians — the Barrie Area Physician Recruitment (BAPR) program — which utilizes a website, social media presence and personalized tours to showcase what Innisfil and other local towns have to offer.
“When a physician expresses interest in joining Innisfil, we take a hands-on approach to support their needs,” Corinne Maxwell, physician recruitment coordinator for BAPR, said via email.
That includes understanding the doctor’s preferred practice model, identifying clinic spaces, introducing them to potential colleagues, and arranging tours of the community.
Unfortunately, Maxwell said finding available clinic space in Innisfil can be “a challenge,” and popular options for new physicians are limited, such as joining a group or managed practice instead of starting from scratch.
“When space isn’t available, we work to place physicians in nearby communities like south Barrie, ensuring they can still practice in the region,” Maxwell said.
Those challenges aren’t unique to Innisfil, and largely reflect province-wide issues of an aging population “significantly” increasing demand on the health-care system, compounded by operational costs and administrative burdens acting as barriers to recruitment, according to Dr. Chibuike Chizea, physician and co-chair of the Barrie and Area OHT.
“Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative effort to create a supportive and sustainable environment for family physicians,” he said.
As part of that collaboration, Innisfil opened the Rizzardo Health and Wellness Centre in May 2019. Space in the building is leased to health-care providers and on Nov. 15 Jones celebrated the grand opening of the Georgian Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic, which is expected to accept about 3,000 patients.
“Over the past five years, we’ve filled this building with a range of health-care services including primary care,” town chief administrative officer Oliver Jerschow said via email.
Despite those successes, Jerschow acknowledged facing challenges as providers are in high demand and they need to feel the town is the right fit for them. He said the town is pleased to welcome any providers interested and they continue working with the Barrie and Area OHT to do just that.
In August, both Bradford and Innisfil signed a joint resolution from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), calling on the provincial government to recognize the province’s physician shortage as well as to provide funding to ensure every Ontarian has access to a doctor.
It said 2.3 million Ontarians currently lack access to a family doctor, Ontario is spending the lowest, per capita, of all provinces on health care, patients are being de-rostered and there are emergency-room closures happening across the province. As well, 40 per cent of family physicians are considering retirement over the next five years, making it “increasingly challenging to attract and retain an adequate health-care workforce.”
Bradford’s Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott brought the Liberal-released report to the attention of BradfordToday.
“Nothing’s more helpful to good health care than having access to your own family doctor, someone who knows you and your circumstances,” he said via email. “There’s a lot more to do and it’s going to take smart leadership and sustained efforts to solve this crisis.”
— With files from Chris Simon
