June 6, 2001

The Hon. Mike Harris, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto ON  M7A 1A1

Dear Mr. Harris:

O

The serious problems we experience in health care have escalated to crisis levels in Canada and we must take advantage of any and all opportunities to address, find and implement solutions to this crisis. The government’s commitment to the development of a Clinical Education Centre for medical students in rural areas is a positive step. We are encouraged by your commitment for the establishment of a satellite medical school in our community which will result in a “trickle down” effect for all of Essex, Kent & Lambton Counties.

With a sound infrastructure already in place, Windsor is in a strong position to quickly move forward with its plan to work in partnership with the University of Western Ontario. Further, the medical school proposal committee is committed to hiring a consultant to prepare a business case and fine-tune details for the proposal that you require.

As business owners, we realize that you are being asked to make some very tough decisions. We want to reconfirm our desire to work with you, members of government, the University of Western Ontario and community stakeholders to alleviate the unacceptably long waiting lists for treatment, the hour-long waits in emergency rooms, the shortage of hospital beds and nurses, and the difficulty finding a family physician that many citizens in our community are currently experiencing.

A new study by local hospitals and medical leaders concludes that our area is experiencing a shortage of 250 physicians – 136 family doctors and 114 specialists. If this study is accurate, it means more than 40,000 people do not have a family doctor.

As well, the June 5^th edition of the Windsor Star reports that Macleans/Canadian Institute for Health Information’s annual rankings on health care in Canada places “Windsor and Essex County dead last in Canada as the place to find a family doctor.“ The Windsor area also scored “substantially lower” than the national average in the area of physician servicing, showing a ratio of 56 family doctors per 100,000 population compared with 94 per 100,000 nationally. This would indicate one area where there are problems.

Very sincerely,

James E. (Ted) Farron
Chairman