Some member doctors of the Ontario Medical Association are calling on the Ontario government to step up with better funding and better working conditions to stem the flow of physicians who are quitting their jobs and leaving family practice.
"The reality is family doctors didn't go into medicine to do paperwork. We want to see patients, we want to help our patients, and that certainly takes away from it," said Dr. Barber who is also a member of the OMA's section on general and family practice working in Kingston. "I mean, the first thing certainly is the economics of it. Right now in Ontario family medicine is a failed business model."
That's when the number of local doctors, which used to be seven, fell to three. Switzer said the Ontario Ministry of Health did an assessment and said that three physicians for Wawa was sufficient."We had multiple rounds of discussion with our Ministry of Health contacts, and they repeatedly refused to provide meaningful long term support to the vacant practices for the missing doctors for the four physicians who don't exist in our town," she said.