I have to assume that the member opposite is referencing some nurse practitioner-led clinics that are charging patients for a membership. As we have said repeatedly, there is a loophole in the federal Canada Health Act that we are actively engaged with the federal government on to close that loophole.

It is important for all of us to understand that publicly funded OHIP-covered services, as protected within the Canada Health Act, continue to be offered using your OHIP card, not your credit card. That’s what we will fight for on this side of the House.

Respectfully, Speaker, I must say as we talk about expanding multidisciplinary teams, what do the NDP want to talk about? They want to talk about administration.

I want to see primary care expansions where you see physicians, where you see nurse practitioners working together with dietitians, with mental health workers, with registered nurses, with PSWs to make sure that, whatever care you need in your treatment journey, you have access to it.

Primary care, multidisciplinary teams are where we need to be to ensure the people of Ontario get access to the care they need, and 78 new and expanded opportunities came forward when we made those announcements in February. You go to the Davenport organization that is receiving an expansion and tell them that you do not support multidisciplinary teams.

Back to the Premier: Primary care providers and patients know that this is just a drop in the bucket; it’s not going far enough. And the government knows this too. They’re making a choice. They’re choosing to expand private, for-profit care in this province to line the pockets of private, for-profit corporate shareholders. That’s what this is all about.

Doctors in this province, on the other hand, are spending nearly half their time filling out forms and doing administrative follow-ups. Our motion would unlock thousands of hours of direct patient care by investing in new supports for health care providers. It’s about putting patients first instead of paperwork.

So back to the Premier: Is he content to govern a province where millions are going without basic care, or will he listen to the primary care providers and take this simple step to get people the care that they so desperately need?

Interjections.

The Conservative government likes to pretend hallway medicine is a thing of the past, but it continues to happen right now on their watch, and in Sudbury it’s even getting worse. Health Sciences North was designed for 412 patients; last month, they set a record high with 621. This means even more patients that are staying in hallways. One of the reasons that admittances are so high is that without access to primary care, many people are left to seek care in crowded emergency rooms, and it is vital that we clear the backlog by increasing access to family doctors because this will reduce the need for emergency visits.

My question, Speaker: Will the Conservative government support the NDP motion to fix the primary care shortage and put patients first?

Joyce is a senior from Sudbury, and while trying to recover from a near fatal scare, she was put in a shower room for her stay. And this is not uncommon in my city: no windows, no TV—a shower room.

Her daughter reported that on numerous occasions, complete strangers would walk in unannounced trying to find a bathroom or a place to wash up. Joyce’s daughter said, “The nurses and the PSWs work so hard under the circumstances they’re given and were so kind to us. The service is good—it’s the bed capacity that is the issue. They really need to expand.”

Speaker, this should not be acceptable to the Conservative government. My question: When is meaningful investment going to come so people like Joyce can recover with dignity?

I’ve looked at the oppo day motion for the NDP and I have to say it concerns me that they are suggesting that the Ontario Medical Association is not the appropriate place to make sure that we work collaboratively with them on paperwork and ensuring that they are in front of patients.

When I see the expansions that are happening in Hamilton and across your region, what are you telling your constituents when I see that the Greater Hamilton Health Network primary care stakeholder council has a new primary care multidisciplinary team as a result of February’s announcement? Those are on-the-ground impacts that will make a difference in your community and communities across Ontario.

We need to ensure that everyone who wants a primary care physician has the opportunity to do that. And the only way we can do that is through expansion of medical seats, expansion of all—

Let’s do it? Okay. How about Couchiching, which is getting an estimated 10,000 patients attached? And there’s Wellfort Community Health Services in Brampton, Bramalea and Malton, which is attaching 7,200 patients.

So we’re really not going to stop, as a government, until everyone who wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one. That’s why we put out this great announcement recently.

And I trust that everyone in this Legislature will support our upcoming budget to ensure that this important work of attaching more Ontarians to more patient care, more interprofessional primary care teams can continue.

Together with these historic investments to expand medical school spots and breaking down barriers so highly skilled, internationally trained doctors can practise finally in Ontario, we will connect up to 98% of Ontarians to primary care.

This is a great system. I think that the international doctors and getting them qualified to practise is such an important initiative. We’ve been talking about it for 30 years, but it doesn’t get done. But this government is getting it done, removing those barriers and making sure that internationally trained doctors can also practise here in a timely way.

While the NDP and Liberals continue to be opposed to innovation and fight us at every turn, our government is working hand in hand with our health care partners to take bold action to provide more people with the right care in the right place in every corner of the province.

I would like to read a few quotes about our primary care expansion. This one is from Dr. Jane Philpott, former Liberal health minister, dean of Queen’s health sciences. She said, “This funding announcement”—this was in February—“is great news for the people of Ontario. We know that provinces built with strong systems of primary care will offer people the best health outcomes, at the most affordable public cost, providing care that is both equitable and accessible. Today’s news moves us one big step closer to the dream of ensuring that every person in Ontario will have a primary care home.” That’s a great quote from Dr. Philpott.

Another quote, from Dr. Andrew Park, president of the Ontario Medical Association: “Family doctors are the foundation of our health care system. Every Ontarian, no matter where they live, should have access to a doctor and a well-coordinated health care team supporting them when and where they need it. This is an important step towards that goal.”

Kimberly Moran, the Ontario Medical Association CEO, said, “The OMA has been advocating for increased investments in teams to improve access to care and ensure doctors and health professions are able to do what they do best, care for patients. There are benefits to team-based care for both patients and providers so our goal is to get every Ontarian access. This announcement to triple the original funding plan is a significant move in the right direction.”

And how about Dr. Doris Grinspun? She said, “The expansion of primary care, and—in particular the enhanced utilization of NP expertise alongside RN prescribing—will unlock timely, safe and quality care for Ontarians. Better care and health outcomes also lead to lower system costs—a win for Ontarians as patients and as taxpayers. We are pleased that the government is demonstrating commitment to publicly funded, team-based primary care, which will begin transforming the health system for all and especially for marginalized and vulnerable populations.” Thank you, Dr. Grinspun, for that.

Here’s a quote from Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association: “The Ontario Hospital Association thanks the government of Ontario for making new investments in primary health care teams, which will improve access to high-quality primary care and address some of the capacity pressures on hospitals by keeping more Ontarians well and less likely to require hospitalization.”

Another quote I can offer is from the Ontario College of Family Physicians. I think my friends mentioned the Ontario College of Family Physicians—the president, Dr. Mekalai Kumanan. The quote is: “Today’s announcement to expand and grow access to teams of health care providers will ensure that more Ontarians can get the right care, from the right provider, while adding needed support for family doctors. The Ontario College of Family Physicians has been advocating for expanded team-based care in this province, and today’s announcement is a positive step forward. We look forward to continuing to work with the Ontario government to ensure that every Ontarian has access to a family physician.”

Dr. Matt Anderson, president and CEO of Ontario Health, said, “Increasing and expanding interprofessional primary care teams will provide more people access to primary care, which is critical for a stable and high-functioning health system. This expansion is an important step in advancing our goal of a more connected and coordinated” health care system.

Sarah Hobbs, the CEO of Alliance for Healthier Communities, said, “The announcement made today by the government of Ontario is historic. The expansion of interprofessional team-based care is a critical step to addressing access to primary health care and realizing the government’s vision of connected and convenient care. This is an important step towards positioning primary health care as the foundation of the health system. We are thrilled with the investment in a new community health centre in Peterborough and the new Periwinkle-Union Street team, as we know these primary health care models will provide much needed care to people who face the most barriers to access. We want to thank the government for the increased operational support for existing teams. This helps our members keep the doors open for their communities, by ensuring they can pay the rent, and keep the lights on.”

Here’s a quote from Dr. Michelle Acorn and Barbara Bailey, CEO and president of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario: “The Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO) is thrilled by the recent announcement from the Ontario Ministry of Health regarding the allocation of additional funding towards expanding interprofessional primary care and existing programs. This is a significant investment that will support nurse practitioners, as integral health care team members, in ensuring Ontarians receive the high-quality, timely care they deserve. NPAO looks forward to continuing to work with the Ministry of Health to advance our shared goals of comprehensive and accessible health care delivery.”

It just goes on. Let me do a couple of more, and then we’ll stop.

The CEO of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, Leslie Sorensen, said, “We commend the government of Ontario for further investing in interprofessional team-based primary care across Ontario. These projects are going to be critical to ensure more Ontarians have access to primary care teams that can provide the wraparound services we know result in better outcomes and faster access to care. This is an important step in building upon the comprehensive programs offered through team-based primary care and expanding these teams as the foundation of Ontario’s health care system.”

Caroline Lidstone-Jones, CEO of Indigenous Primary Health Care Council, said, “This is a great step in the right direction, and we are thankful for the investment into the integrated primary health care sector. By targeting underserved groups and areas, this historic investment will help tackle issues around access to interprofessional primary care and the IPHCC looks forward to partnering with new and existing agencies. We are also thrilled that this investment includes supports for operational facilities and supplies, and most importantly includes provisions for culturally appropriate care provided by Indigenous traditional practitioners.”

Let me do one more quote. The chair of the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association, Teresa Wetselaar, said, “On behalf of the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association, I extend heartfelt gratitude to the provincial government for their visionary commitment to primary care. The allocation of $90 million towards the expansion of interprofessional care teams is a testament of their dedication to fostering comprehensive, patient-centred care. This commitment will reduce barriers for underserved communities and improve access for unattached patients, particularly those in marginalized or vulnerable populations. Additionally, the wise decision to invest an additional $20 million in supporting the operational pressures faced by existing primary care teams exemplifies a deep understanding of the challenges our primary health care teams navigate daily. This significant financial support not only empowers us to broaden the reach of collaborative care but also fortifies the foundations of our existing teams. I commend the provincial government for prioritizing the well-being of our communities. Together, we are charting a course towards a more resilient, inclusive, and connected health care system.”

Thank you for indulging me to go through some of those great quotes from some of our health care partners about our interprofessional primary care team announcement, which we know is a historic announcement that is going to change the face of health care in Ontario and make sure that more people have access to primary care. It’s the largest expansion of interprofessional primary care teams since they were created, and it’s a huge boost for the Ontario primary care system.

After years of neglect, as I said at the beginning of my speech, by the Liberals and the NDP supporting each other, I know that every member of this Legislature wants to see investment in the health care system which builds a more connected and convenient system.

But if the members of the New Democratic Party across the way, the opposition, really want to show support for primary care, there really is a great opportunity to do that: by voting for our government’s historic expansion of primary care that we announced earlier this year. I certainly hope that they will show their support by voting for this continued expansion in the upcoming budget, because for primary care—for health care, really, across Ontario—it’s under the government of Premier Ford that we’re getting it done.

There are 165,000 people in Ottawa, Speaker, who do not have a family doctor or a primary health care provider, and I hear on a weekly basis from these patients who are desperate, who are frustrated and, in some cases, scared. These are people who have nowhere to go for basic, routine health care, who have no one to ask the question to when they find a lump or something disturbing, who have nowhere to go just to get a prescription renewed.

Our emergency rooms in Ottawa are packed, and yet this government is cutting funding to the Queensway Carleton Hospital for emergency care so that, come April, there will be 10 fewer physician hours in the ER every single day. People do not want to go to the Queensway Carleton for basic health care, but they are desperate. So desperate that when the South Keys Health Center opened up and told people they could have health care for $400 a day, plus $75 for each visit, there were 2,000 people on the wait-list for this care. Appletree is able to charge $110 for a pap test and then another $110 to get the results of that pap test. ReVive health care in Kanata is charging $600 for primary health care, and there are people in Ottawa who are so desperate for care that they are willing to pay these prices.

This is the government that said nobody would have to pay with their credit card, and yet here are people in Ottawa having to pay with their credit card for the most basic of health care.

Then, last week, we learned that there are some incredibly unsavory operators operating in this field, where there is no health regulation and people have no idea who is providing this care that they are paying for.

The government could address this crisis today, stop the exploitation, stop putting people at risk, if they adopted the NDP motion, which would provide an additional 19 hours a week of administrative support for doctors and provide primary care for two million people, which would include the 165,000 people in Ottawa.

I urge the members on the government side to vote today to put a stop to this exploitation and provide people with the primary care that they deserve.

I’m proud to stand in here in support of this very practical motion to provide additional administrative support for doctors so they can focus their time and their talent and their skills on providing patient care. We estimate an investment in administrative support could enable doctors to take on approximately two million more patients. It is a very practical solution that we are presenting today.

In my riding, we have a primary care provider and family doctor shortage.

I recently met with staff and patients from the Taddle Creek Family Health Team. They represent over 25,000 people; they have over 25,000 patients. The doctors told me that they spend easily 20 hours a week on administration, faxing forms, filling in paperwork, referring patients to multiple specialists as there is no centralized wait-list.

The Taddle Creek executive member was telling me that they have many vacant positions that they cannot fill—nurses, pharmacists, social workers. They also told me that people are leaving because they are not paid enough and they can get higher-paying jobs elsewhere. They have made a request to this government to raise wages for staff to comparable wages in the hospital sector, and it was rejected, and as a result, doctors and staff are leaving. This is the family health team that just had one doctor go to a private executive health clinic where it now costs $5,000 a year to access that medical clinic and get basic primary care. That is a shame, and that should not be happening in Ontario today.

When people are left without a family doctor, their health is at risk. Some people will get sicker. Some people will end up in the emergency room. Some people will needlessly die. I do not think this is right.

I believe this government is driving our primary health care system into the ground.

Our health care system depends on people having a primary care provider—it is the backbone—who can perform physicals, prescribe medication, do referrals and consistently manage non-urgent and preventive care.

Residents should not have to go down to the emergency room to get a prescription for antibiotics because there is nowhere else for them to go. That is happening in University–Rosedale today. It is a shame.

We are calling on this government to fix the family doctor shortage and the primary care crisis because everyone in Ontario should have access to good primary care that works for them, regardless of their age or ethnicity, or where they live, or their income.

We have presented a practical solution today to provide additional administrative support to doctors so they can expand the number of patients they can see and do the job that they do well to more people.

I am urging this government to support our motion today and fix our primary care provider shortage.

Most people listen to their doctors. People trust their advice and do what they are told that they need to do. That said, that is not happening when it comes to this government and sound medical advice. This government hasn’t been listening to doctors, which is why we are here today debating a practical solution proposed by the Ontario NDP to help more doctors to see more patients.

The lines for walk-in clinics start well before they open and wrap around buildings. People need care, but they can’t find it. Nicole in Oshawa has a family doctor in Scarborough, but she can’t get off that roster to free up space for a local patient, because then she won’t have a doctor. Frank moved here from out of province and hops from clinic to clinic to get important prescriptions renewed. Newcomers and new neighbours try to figure out waiting rooms without English or a primary care provider. Folks need access to medical care, and they need family doctors.

The Oshawa Clinic is moving to Whitby imminently, and we don’t know what will become of their patients if they can’t travel and follow them.

Some 2.3 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor. The NDP has a solution that will get people access to the doctors we have today by freeing them up to see additional patients. Doctors are tied up with paperwork and are unable to see as many patients as they otherwise could if they had support with the workload. We have listened to our doctors, and we’re proposing that the province hire staff support to free up family doctors, and we’re proposing that the province hire staff soon. We could take an additional estimated two million more patients—the doctors can handle up to two million additional patients if we did something now. This still won’t solve all the ills of the system. We need more doctors in the system and more doctors to go into family medicine. We still need family doctors in communities where there aren’t any. But where there are doctors, we want them to be able to work to their full capacity.

Hire staff support to handle the paperwork, so doctors can handle the patient work. There is no time to waste, because as we know, an ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure. We want a healthier system so we can have healthier communities. We need to do something today to support the family doctors of tomorrow.

Today, we can support this motion to ensure more patients have access to the doctors we currently have. This motion is just what the doctor ordered, and I hope this government will follow good advice.

I’m proud to rise today to speak in support of this motion to address the doctor shortage crisis in Ontario by providing more administrative support, freeing up Ontario’s doctors to take on tens of thousands more patients.

Currently, 73,000 people in the Niagara region do not have a family doctor, a sharp increase from 53,000 in 2023. This is not sustainable. What’s worse, this number is expected to explode to over 140,000 in Niagara by 2026. Welland has around four family physicians per 10,000 people, the lowest ratio in the region. Port Colborne has a population of about 20,000; roughly 10,000—half of them—are without a family doctor and rely on the urgent care centre, which is slated to close, as their primary point of health care.

Dr. Ahmed, a family physician from Niagara, spoke with the media recently and said, “I looked at the numbers ... and I was saddened but not shocked.” Several factors are driving the increasing shortage, she said, and they include an increased administrative burden “that has been foisted upon us by the powers that be,” as well as compensation that is not keeping up with inflation, “so physicians are struggling to keep their doors open.” Ahmed said family doctors spend an average of 19 hours per week, more than two full days’ work, in Niagara on administrative work.

Speaker, this government should support our common-sense motion to invest in administrative staff and integrated care options, which would unlock more time for doctors to care for thousands of patients in Niagara and across Ontario who are desperate for a family doctor right now.

This morning I shared the stories of Gloria and Susan, just two of the more than 65,000 Londoners who do not have access to primary care. In her response, the minister talked about the expanded family health team in Elgin, which will help about 1,200 of those 65,000 patients. This is completely inadequate to deal with the scale of the problem and frankly insulting to people in my community, who deserve to see a family doctor in London.

My office gets calls daily from people desperate to find a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Often, they haven’t seen a primary care provider in years. The only solution this government offers is to register with Health Care Connect and then wait indefinitely without ever hearing back about a doctor accepting new patients.

With burnout the number one issue facing family doctors in Ontario, more and more doctors are retiring without a replacement, leaving more and more people without care. When people don’t get the care they need, they are forced to rely on walk-in clinics that book up as soon as they open. They wait hours at St. Joe’s urgent care or have to go to one of our overwhelmed emergency rooms.

Speaker, this government’s tiny expansion of team-based care was described by one family doctor as about as helpful as an umbrella in a hurricane.

This is an all-hands-on-deck situation, which is why the NDP has put forward this motion. We are calling on the government to invest in the number of family health teams we actually need in Ontario. We are urging an investment in administrative staff to help reduce the paperwork burden that consumes about 40% of a family doctor’s time—time that could be spent seeing patients instead. Support this motion.

Thank you so much to my colleagues from the official opposition. Our proposal is the equivalent of introducing 2,000 new doctors in the province of Ontario tomorrow to see two million more patients. What could possibly be wrong with this?

Listening to the government members opposite address this motion, I felt a little bit like Alice down the rabbit hole. But there’s no waking up from this nightmare. We’ve listened to Liberal and Conservative governments over so many years—the last 20, 30 years—with half measures and cuts. Let’s just call the Liberal and Conservative governments Tweedledee and Tweedledum for the purposes of this argument. Nothing has been adequate and the writing has been on the wall all of that time.

Six years into this government’s mandate I would urge them to do something for the people of Ontario, listen to the 2.2 million Ontarians who do not have a family doctor, listen to the voices of Ontarians who are saying, “Please, do something right now.” We are serving you up a solution. You are not approaching this with the urgency that it requires.

If this motion were to pass—and we are forcing a vote on this this afternoon—again, 2,000 more doctors—the equivalent—two million more Ontarians could actually see primary care delivered immediately. It would relieve the administrative burden on family physicians. It will get patients the access they need and then relieve the pressure on our emergency rooms. You have a choice to make. Make the right one today. Vote in favour of this motion.