A report from the Rural Ontario Municipal Association urges the province to take action to bring rural health care services closer to home.
The paper, titled Fill the Gaps Closer to Home, was presented at the ROMA conference which wrapped up earlier this week in Toronto and provides 22 recommendations to help bring improved primary health and mental healthcare services to people in rural communities.
The report says rural communities are disproportionately impacted by Ontario’s healthcare crisis noting that rural Ontarians are losing primary care providers at a rate of 12% per year – four times faster than people in urban centres.
In addition, an estimated 525,000 rural residents are lacking a primary care provider.
According to the data, rural Ontario municipalities contribute more than $480 million to health and social service programs, despite not having equitable access.
Rural communities face a number of challenges, including lack of primary care providers and mental health resources, frequent emergency department closures, and acute shortages in healthcare workers and recruitment.
Additionally, travel time for rural Ontarians to access these services is significant.
Among the 22 recommendations in the report, specific requests of the province include:
• Fixing primary care by creating new and integrated models to deploy healthcare
providers more effectively in rural areas, and to help shift demand from
emergency rooms.
• Uploading a significant portion of healthcare costs from rural communities back
to the provincial government.
• Building on current efforts to expand scope of practice for community healthcare
providers like nurses, nurse practitioners and paramedics.
• Requiring Ontario Health Teams to include municipalities at the table. ROMA’s
data indicates that too few rural communities have been engaged.
The report indicates that these changes can start today and in some rural communities,
collaborative efforts that align with ROMA’s work have already begun.
In a press release from ROMA, Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson says, “Rural communities are being proactive and working together on local and regional
initiatives, but we still need provincial support. In the Hastings-Quinte region, municipal, healthcare and post-secondary partners have founded Health PULSE – Partners United in Local Solutions for Everyone – in an effort to take a coordinated, unified approach to addressing the healthcare
challenges in our region.”
Research for Fill the Gaps Closer to Home included surveys of rural municipal leaders and paramedic chiefs, interviews with municipal leaders and front-line service providers and organizations, as well as in-depth analysis of public data and reports.
ROMA’s full report can be found online.
