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MAURO HOSTS UNDERSERVICED AREA PROGRAM (UAP) CONSULTATION TO IMPROVE PHYSICIAN RECRUITMENT Thunder Bay-Atikokan - Bill Mauro, MPP hosted a roundtable consultation in Thunder Bay today on the McGuinty government’s plan to renew and improve physician recruitment and retention components of the province’s Underserviced Area Program (UAP) in northern and rural Ontario.

“Our government is bringing the focus of the Underserviced Area Program back to its true objective – helping northern and rural communities attract great physicians,” said Mauro. “I look forward to working with local doctors, hospital administrators, municipal officials and other healthcare professionals to improve access to primary care for residents of Thunder Bay and surrounding communities.”

Currently only 20 per cent of the funding from the UAP is reaching the northern and rural communities in the province. To improve the program to better serve northern and rural Ontarians, the province will be consulting with communities and other partners on its plan to strengthen the benefits of UAP incentive funding for rural and northern communities. As part of the renewal, the government is also proposing that all communities in Ontario, with the exceptions of Ottawa and the GTA, be able to recruit physicians with Return of Service commitments.

“The Underserviced Area Program is a valuable program intended to help underserviced communities across the province,” said David Caplan, Health and Long-Term Care Minister. “It can improve access to health care services by providing a variety of integrated initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining health care providers. Our government believes that improvements to the Underserviced Area Program will help make Ontario a more attractive place for doctors to work and that’s good news for all communities.”

Other McGuinty government initiatives to increase access to primary care include:

• By 2011, the government will have created 260 new first year medical school spaces, a 38 per cent increase since 2004-05;

• Opened the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the first new medical school in Canada in 30 years, providing 56 new spaces;

• Increased the number of training spaces for international medical graduates (IMG) from 90 to 200;

• Creating 25 new Nurse Practitioner Clinics including one in Thunder Bay;

• Created 150 new Family Health Teams and have committed to creating 50 more.


QUICK FACTS

• The UAP was established in 1969 to respond to the need for more health professionals in Northern Ontario. It has gradually expanded its role to address the issue of physician health human resources in southern communities

• The UAP is one of a number of supports provided by the government to help communities recruit and retain health care professionals

• The Ontario government is establishing a Rural and Northern Health Care Advisory Panel to provide recommendations to the government on how best to deliver health care services to Northern and Rural areas

• Return of service is a legal commitment to work in a particular community for a specified period of time. Physicians agree to return service in exchange for either financial assistance to offset tuition costs or a postgraduate training position

Contact:
Bill Mauro, MPP
(807) 623-9237