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Doctors are part of community’s infrastructure, just like water
Tuesday August 12 2008
By Rob Strang, On Politics
 
Dufferin County is not under-serviced because of the absolute number of doctors we have, it is because of the ratio of doctors to patients. Recently, Dr. Amy Horvat publicly said, “A doctor patient ratio of 1:1200 is standard in present day.” If our population remains the same as we attract doctors, we gradually approach this ratio. If population growth exceeds the rate that we attract physicians, we lose ground. Therefore the problem can be addressed by attracting more doctors, controlling growth or by doing both.
Through their participation on the Dufferin Area Physician Search Committee, the medical community is doing all it can to improve the ratio by bringing in more doctors. Now it’s up to the politicians to do everything they can. To their credit, the politicians have funded the search committee, but at the same time some are undermining the success of the search committee by increasing the population of the under-serviced areas. They are approving the construction of homes in areas where they know the new occupants will not be able to find a doctor.
No town council would
permit construction when there isn’t sewage capacity, or available water, so why is development approved when the councils know full well that there aren’t basic medical services available for the new occupants? I suppose in the hierarchy of human needs, the ability to drink and poop top the list, but medical aid should be close and therefore worthy of action.
When politicians vociferously acknowledge the doctor shortage yet push on with growth as usual, whose interests are they serving? Shouldn’t politicians be addressing the needs of the people who elected them? In the face of a doctors’ shortage, new homes just reduce the chances of the current residents from being taken on by the new doctors that do arrive.
If our politicians set quality of life standards, as some communities in the United States have done, and only approve development when the community could provide all of the essential services, life would be better. It’s all about planning, balance and getting away from a growth-at-any-cost mentality.
Undoubtedly, a community trying to protect quality of life in the face of development pressure will be at odds with Ontario government policies. The Liberal and Conservative governments have always walked to the beat of the development industry’s drum.
That’s not going to change anytime soon, unless our local politicians represent the interests of the people and call for change. If each town that seriously had a doctors’ shortage flatly refused to approve new development until an appropriate doctor patient ratio was established, it would embarrass the Province into rethinking its priorities and we’d finally be getting closer to a solution.


Rob Strang is a former Orangeville Town Councillor, a professional engineer and a self-employed occupational health consultant, committed to promoting sustainable development.