Feature Article April 10, 2002
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeContact Us
Is there a doctor in the house?(Part 3 in a continuing series of articles addressing Primary Health Care Reform in Ontario)by David BrisonA large crowd gathered for a Town Hall meeting in Kingston on March 5 to hear what a panel of family physicians had to say on this topic. The panel our own Dr. Peter Bell, representing the Sharbot Lake Medical Centre, Dr. Adam Newman from the North Kingston Community Health Centre, and Dr. Linda Thomson, who is in private practice in Kingston addressed an audience that, judging from their questions, clearly believes that in Kingston there are no doctors in the house. There definitely is a physician shortage in Kingston. The Social Planning Council of Kingston and Area has recently released figures showing that there are fewer physicians now than there were in 1995, and that, more importantly, there are no family physicians who will accept new patients. Newcomers moving to the Cloyne/Northbrook area of North Frontenac and Lennox Addington are also unable to find a physician who will accept new patients. The only option for these orphans, even when their medical problems are routine and not emergencies, is to visit distant and increasingly crowded hospital emergency rooms. From their discussion regarding the shortage of physicians in Ontario, the panel in Kingston moved on to address the issue of how physicians are paid. To this physician-hungry audience, method of payment seemed irrelevant compared with the issue of accessibility. But a deeper understanding of these issues will show how they are inextricably linked. To new residents in Central Frontenac and the southern parts of North Frontenac, medical care is fully accessible: the Sharbot Lake Medical Centre is accepting new patients. Furthermore, the reason why the clinic, directed by Dr. Peter Bell, is able to do this while others cant is related to how its physicians are paid. Dr. Bell came to Sharbot Lake in 1971, and shortly after that, became part of a system which funded doctors differently. Instead of being paid on a fee-for-service basis (for each patient visit), the Sharbot Lake Medical Centre was (and is) funded on the basis of the number of patients in their practice.
