The Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) have received a mediated arbitration award that increases funding to expand access to physician services across the province, including expanded services in rural and northern Ontario and stable staffing for emergency departments across the province. This funding is a result of a September 2024 arbitration award that will increase funding for specific targeted health care investments.
“Today’s strategic investments build on our government’s progress to protect Ontario health care to ensure everyone has reliable access to care, no matter where they live,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By investing in emergency department staffing and strengthening rural and northern health care, we are making significant strides to conveniently connect Ontario families, especially those in rural and northern communities, to the care they need, where and when they need it.”
This award includes:
- Improvements to physician funding for emergency department agreements, including the introduction of the new Rural Emergency Medicine Coverage Investment Fund (REMCIF) to ensure people can connect to care at emergency departments with reliable and appropriate physician staffing levels year-round, especially during weekends, holidays and peak seasons in rural and northern communities, effective April 1, 2025.
- Significant investments in the Rural and Northern Physician Group Agreement (RNPGA) primary care model to help people in underserved communities connect to a physician. The agreement helps recruit physicians to rural and northern communities by standardizing compensation rates for physicians, providing essential funding for physician office overhead costs and ensures emergency departments have reliable, stable staffing.
- A new compensation model for physicians at the All Nations Health Partners Ontario Health Team in the Kenora area that will help connect people to physician care services by recruiting and retaining physicians. The new model offers physicians simplified funding, consolidated and streamlined physician services contracts and a new hourly rate for emergency department coverage.
- Increased funding for an existing physician services agreement for the Sioux Lookout region that will increase physicians’ compensation for travelling and working more days in the community. It also includes a new hourly rate for emergency department coverage, increased compensation for specialists and funding to recruit and retain physicians to the region.
Through the Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government will continue to make unprecedented investments into the health care system. Ontario’s plan to provide more connected and convenient care includes historic investments to connect every person to primary care, the largest expansion of medical education in more than a decade, new programs to pay for school and supplies for family doctors, and new community surgical and diagnostic centres.
Quick Facts
- The OMA serves as the representative body for Ontario’s physicians, advocating for their well-being, as well as the health of their patients.
- The Ontario government is continuing to invest to ensure reliable access to health services and promote long-term stability in Ontario’s emergency department system, especially in northern Ontario.
- The Ministry worked closely with Indigenous leaders and stakeholders in Sioux Lookout and the Kenora area to develop agreements that provide increased supports for health care delivery in northern Ontario.
- These investments are designed to improve health care delivery and support physicians across Ontario and the government continues to work with the OMA to negotiate the remaining years of the 2024 Physician Services Agreement.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
