OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about a potential city-run medical clinic, published Jan. 13.
The Orillia city council approved on Jan. 13 the establishment of a city-operated medical clinic working group. There are many details to be studied before council will approve some clinic or drop the entire matter — details such as the makeup of the clinic staff, how the province is billed for the medical service cost, who can access the clinic (Orillia residents, tourist, transients, etc.), and several other matters will have to be looked into by this new working group.
The creation of such a clinic is applaudable even though the provision of medical services is not a municipal matter. If the clinic concept succeeds, it will help people to access health services, which is badly needed.
The basic concept is that the city will own the clinic and the clinic’s staff will be city employees, with medical costs to be billed to the province under the Ontario Heath Insurance Plan. As this will reduce risk and administration cost to doctors, it is hoped that it will attract to Orillia doctors that otherwise would not work here.
The clinic, if approved, will benefit local people and hence is a good idea, but it most likely will require continuous subsidy from city funds. Furthermore, while it is a benefit locally, it does not improve the provincewide difficulty as such a clinic only moves doctors here from somewhere else. It does not increase the provincewide supply of doctors.
Konrad Brenner
Ramara Township
