Family Health Teams and other interprofessional primary care providers are having difficulty retaining and recruiting health professionals due to poor compensation. One in five nurse practitioner positions are vacant according to a report issued last year. (Canstock Photo)
The Ontario government would like every dollar of funding increase to be used to increase the volume of care. In their world, nothing would go to the increased cost of wages, benefits, drugs, energy, equipment, or any other cost pressure that health providers regularly experience.
We are told there is money for volumes, but nothing for base budgets.
While simplistically laudable, it’s not realistic and may be doing harm to the sectors the Wynne government wants to transition more of the health system.
Last year three organizations representing all of Ontario’s interprofessional primary care organizations quietly submitted a report to the Ministry of Health highlighting how the compensation structure for their sector is driving away the professionals they need.
It’s the same low wage strategy that personal support workers have been trapped in, creating high levels of turnover and undermining continuity of care. The big difference is there isn’t a large pool of professionals to continually draw from, leaving significant vacancies.
OPSEU Diablogue 