THUNDER BAY – NEWS – Northern NDP MPPs are supporting the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s call on the Ford government to allow more students and residents to be admitted to address the doctor shortage that is affecting communities across the North.
The following statement was released by Northern NDP MPPs France Gélinas (Nickel Belt), Jamie West (Sudbury), Judith Monteith-Farrell (Thunder Bay – Atikokan), Michael Mantha (Algoma-Manitoulin), Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong), John Vanthof (Timiskaming-Cochrane), Gilles Bisson (Timmins) and Guy Bourgouin (Mushkegowuk-James Bay).
“Every community in Northern Ontario is facing a shortage of family and community doctors. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine has provided many of the talented physicians we have, but we need more. Families across the North have been doing without for far too long.
New Democrats wholeheartedly support NOSM’s call on the province to allow more students to be admitted to its medical school and residency programs to address the northern doctor shortage. Northern communities also need investment, support and models of care to recruit and retain physicians. We must invest in doctors for the North and in their communities.
Together with Andrea Horwath we are committed to addressing the family and community doctor shortage as we push for increased investment in rural and northern communities, including 100 per cent provincial funding of public health costs.”