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CBC
12 minutes ago
- CBC
Ontario, medical association near new compensation deal they say will help retain, recruit family doctors
Social Sharing The Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) say they're close to reaching a new compensation deal for doctors working in family health organizations, which is intended to draw more physicians to family medicine amid a provincial doctor shortage. Both parties say the proposed changes, which would impact roughly 6,500 family physicians, are intended to encourage more doctors to practice or remain in comprehensive family medicine. Negotiations are happening as more than two million Ontarians are without a family doctor. The new model, called FHO+, would allow doctors to bill for administrative tasks that are currently unpaid, on top of clinical tasks, according to the OMA. T he Ontario College of Family Physicians says in an average week, doctors spend about 19 hours on administrative tasks, such as filling out forms, charting and reviewing test results. An OMA spokesperson said in an email that the new compensation model "recognizes family physicians are treating patients with increasingly complex conditions, which often require physicians to spend more time completing administrative tasks." "We believe allowing family physicians to bill for this larger administrative workload will attract and retain more of them in Ontario," Julia Costanzo said in the emailed statement. "Our hope is that this new model will enable more Ontarians to [be] able access a family doctor." WATCH | Breaking down Ontario's family doctor shortage: 'Absolutely staggering': 2.5 million Ontarians without a family doctor 1 year ago The FHO+ model will also end "negation," the OMA statement said, the practice of financially penalizing a family doctor when a patient of theirs who is part of a family health team goes to a walk-in clinic or an emergency department for non-emergency care. The proposed deal would update the current compensation model, which pays doctors working in the province's 615 family health organizations through capitation. While different doctors are compensated in different ways, most family doctors get an annual payment from the government for every patient on their roster, with payments adjusted for factors like age and patient complexity. Bachir Tazkarji, a family physician and medical director of the teaching unit at Summerville Family Health Team, says he thinks the new deal would make comprehensive family medicine a bigger draw for new doctors. "Physicians are staying away from comprehensive family medicine practice, because they have less compensation, where, if they're working in hospitals or O.R., for example, they get compensated for more of this work," he said, adding that about 15 to 35 per cent of his week is spent doing administrative work. "I would think this [deal] is going to be very attractive and helpful to physicians for a better quality of life, reducing burnout and improving the patient's care, improving the direct contact with patients," he said. Health Minister Sylvia Jones told reporters at an unrelated news conference Wednesday that she would not comment on the details of negotiations with OMA, but that talks have been generally positive. The proposed deal was sent to arbitration in June, with a ruling expected in the fall. OMA CEO Kimberly Moran says the deal is about 90 per cent agreed upon and would be in place in April 2026 if finalized. She told CBC Radio's Here and Now Wednesday that while it's important doctors are compensated for "the really large and alarming amount of clinical administration time that they're spending," the province also needs to support physicians with teams and artificial intelligence tools that will reduce the work in the first place. "They didn't go to medical school [to be] on their computer. They went to medical school because they like to treat patients," she said. The Ford government has promised
CTV News
41 minutes ago
- CTV News
History in good hands: LHSC donates century-old records to Western
A quiet corner of Western University now holds more than a century's worth of medical history, thanks to a major donation from London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The health-care organization has officially transferred its historical archives to Western Libraries, delivering 152 boxes of artifacts, documents and records previously stored at Victoria Hospital and Children's Hospital. 'The history that I've seen in these records is really critical to London's history and health care in Canada,' said Anne Quirk, archivist at Western Libraries. 'So it's a great, great partnership for us.' 080625 - Records at Western Anne Quirk, Archivist at Western Libraries, stands in Western's high density archives storage facility where LHSC's records are stored. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) LHSC says these archives tell the story of that evolution through handwritten letters, photographs, and artifacts from LHSC's history, including London General Hospital, Beck Memorial Sanatorium, South Street Hospital, War Memorial Children's Hospital, Westminster Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Children's Hospital at LHSC, University Hospital and the London General Training School for Nurses, one of the earliest training programs for nurses in the region. 080625 - Records at Western Close up of 'Vic Life' a Victoria Hospital Newsletter from 1958, it's apart of a collection that will be preserved at Western. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) Deborah Wiseman, LHSC's vice-president of clinical services, said the donation marks a meaningful step in preserving the legacy of health care in the region. 'It's a meaningful time for us to be making this donation in collaboration with Western,' said Wiseman. 'The history of our past, which is a legacy in our region of health care.' She added the public, along with researchers and health-care professionals, will be able to access the materials in the future. Archivists are currently cataloguing the fonds, which go beyond health care to also touch on local business, science and social history. Western Libraries plans to make large portions of the collection searchable online. 'We have an environment here that is conducive to proper preservation,' said Quirk. 'As well as providing access to researchers who want to come in and look at the content.' The project not only secures LHSC's historical record, but also opens new opportunities for discovery, academic study and public engagement.
CBC
42 minutes ago
- CBC
What's slimy, green and flourishing thanks to climate change?
If you guessed algae, you're right. New research published in Communications Earth & Environment suggests algae growth is increasing in Canada's lakes — even remote ones — and climate change is the main culprit. A team led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal and Université Laval analyzed sediment cores taken from 80 lakes across the country and found that algae has been increasing in the majority of them since the mid-1800s. For lead author Hamid Ghanbari, the most interesting finding was a spike in the rate of the increase in algal growth: since the 1960s, it increased sevenfold. "This was something very surprising for us and when we compared our data with other historical records, we found out that rising temperature is a major factor," Ghanbari said. Aside from climate change, excess nitrogen and phosphorus can also contribute to algal growth when they are carried into waterways through runoff from animal manure and chemical fertilizers, stormwater and wastewater. Algae, along with bacteria and phytoplankton, are essential for the aquatic food web. But too much algae can be a bad thing. The recently published peer-reviewed study looked at algal growth overall and didn't analyze for blooms. While some lakes see some algae as a part of their cycle, Ghanbari said the concern is what will happen if the increase in algae leads to growth outside of what's normal. "That's where the problem starts," he said. "We don't know at the moment what that threshold is, but we know the increasing chlorophyll or algae levels in the lakes could lead to several problems." Ghanbari said excess algae growth can harm aquatic life and even human health — reducing water quality, depleting oxygen in the water and creating blooms that can release dangerous toxins, as residents along the shores of Lake Erie know all too well. Daryl McGoldrick, head of water quality monitoring and surveillance for the Great Lakes for Environment and Climate Change Canada, said while increasing algal growth doesn't necessarily mean more toxic blooms, there is a risk to aquatic life. "The study is in line with what we see and [what we] suspect are impacts of warming," McGoldrick said. Global and local action can help Maëlle Tripon, a project manager with Quebec freshwater advocacy group Fondation Rivières, said her team has noticed first-hand that when it's warmer, they see more algae on lakes. She said her takeaway from the research is that tackling algal growth cannot solely rely on local action. "We already knew we need to change locally — like farming practices and also, for example, we need less paved and waterproof surface in the cities," she said. "But what the study shows is that we also need global policies to alleviate climate change." Ghanbari agreed, but added that individual choices can still help reduce algal growth. "Simple acts such as reducing the fertilizers … or properly disposing of household chemicals, these simple acts could really help the lakes," he said.
