Two municipalities have approved a one-time, $10,000 funding support for a full-time local virtual physician program.
Tay Township and Penetanguishene councils both discussed and voted to approve the money to help thousands of patients in the area that do not have a family physician.
"Currently, there are about 7,000 orphan patients in the area, including Tay Township," said Tay Mayor Ted Walker.
"One of the new ways is by having a family doctor through this virtual program. You would consult with the doctor virtually and through the (North Simcoe Family) health team. The actual cost that they're looking to assist with is the cost of the required nurse practitioner for the program.
"They started it on trial for a couple days a week and it's been very successful," he added. "I think council would agree that this COVID scenario has made this even more obvious."
Coun. Jeff Bumstead said he wasn't sure if Tay should be paying that much since the township was less populated than the neighbouring towns of Midland and Penetanguishene.
"For our people it's a bigger deal to get into Midland or Penetang to attend a family doctor there," said Walker. "That's why I thought the equal request, as in the funds that are being used for the nurse practitioner and admin, wasn't unreasonable."
Coun, Mary Warnock threw her weight behind the mayor's point of view.
"To Coun. Bumstead's concern," she said. "I think you will find a lot of our residents are without a doctor. There's also the rural aspect of transportation. This is what everyone is doing right now.
“We don't know how this is going to play out and how accessible our doctors are going to be for us. The local health team will be using this to offset what they can and can't do for our patients. So I think this is great value."
The cost to run the full-time program on an annual basis is about $170,000, Penetanguishene Coun. George Vadeboncoeur told his fellow council members at the town’s recent committee of the whole meeting.
This amount, he added, pays for one full-time nurse, the lease, administrative support, equipment and supply.
"If it proves successful, they have a chance to be funded from the Ministry of Health," said Vadeboncoeur. "So there's some benefit here for the town providing the one-time funding as a pilot so they can demonstrate to the ministry of health that this can work."
Coun. Dan LaRose wasn't sure if he could support the move.
"I think it's a great idea they're thinking of doing this, but it takes me back to the idea of how much more we should be funding for the provincial government," he said. "If it's a good idea, I can't understand why the province wouldn't just be funding it.
“If it needs a year to show it would work, I don't know why the health team wouldn't do it themselves. I can't support this using tax dollars."
But Mayor Doug Leroux clarified.
"This is not funded from the (town's) tax role," he said. "The health unit itself is a non-profit, so they're not in a position to fund this themselves.
"This is a good situation to help out patients that do not have physicians," added Leroux. "It will certainly be beneficial to them and it could be a very good program. We're looking at a one-time funding to get this thing up and running. I hope it's going to be a success."
Both decisions are expected to be ratified at subsequent council meetings.
