TORONTO - The Ontario Medical Association's new president is calling on the province to tackle the doctor shortage.
Dr. Ken Arnold took the helm this weekend and, in his first address Sunday, outlined several priorities he plans to focus on during his mandate. He says his first priority will be to ensure Ontario residents have timely access to a doctor, noting the province is currently short 2,000 physicians.
He says if Ontario doctors opt to retire at age 64, Ontario would lose the equivalent of another 1,000 family doctors or 1,500 specialists. He says about one million Ontarians are already without a doctor and that the province needs to act now before more are lost to jobs in the U.S. and elsewhere in Canada.
But Ministry of Health spokeswoman Laurel Ostfield says the province is working with doctors and notes the number of Ontarians without a doctor is dropping.
She says there are now just 857,000 Ontario residents without a family physician and that there was actually an 11-per-cent increase in the number of new doctors recruited in the province in 2007 compared with the previous year.
Arnold has also promised to focus on the health of children and raising awareness of the challenges facing aboriginal and remote communities.
