By Sara Wood, Vice President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Access to health care is a concern for people across Ontario, regardless of where they live. Even in large urban centres, many residents struggle to find family doctors, wait for hours in emergency rooms or face long delays for specialized care and testing.

But while access challenges exist everywhere, hospitals, clinics and specialists are usually not far away in urban areas. In rural Ontario, however, the situation is often very different — and when services are reduced or unavailable, patients may be forced to travel hours to access care they need.

For farm families, the issue is especially personal. That’s because agriculture is one of the most physically demanding and dangerous professions in Ontario. Farmers work with large machinery, livestock, chemicals, heights and unpredictable conditions every day, and when accidents happen on farms, quick access to emergency care can make all the difference.

That is why it is deeply concerning to see rural hospitals across Ontario continue to face temporary — and in some cases permanent — emergency room closures because of staffing shortages and limited resources.

My family and I farm near Mitchell in southwestern Ontario, and when you live in a rural area, a closed ER does not just mean inconvenience. It can mean driving an extra hour or more in an emergency or delayed care during a heart attack, serious injury or farm accident. And for aging rural populations, it creates even more uncertainty and stress.

Rural communities also continue to struggle with shortages of family doctors and primary care providers. That affects everyone, including farm families trying to bring the next generation home to the farm. Young families considering building a life in rural Ontario want to know there will be access to doctors, emergency care and health services for their children.

This is no longer just a health care issue; it’s also a rural economic development issue.

At the same time, Ontario is also facing evolving health challenges linked to changing environmental conditions and climate trends.

Ticks and tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease are becoming increasingly common, including in many rural and agricultural areas where they were once rare. Public Health Ontario maps show blacklegged tick habitat has expanded dramatically over the past decade.

For people who work outdoors every day, including farmers and farm workers, this is becoming a serious concern. This spring especially has already been bad for ticks in many parts of the province with farmers are noticing them more frequently in fields, fence lines, bush lots and around livestock areas.

Lyme disease and other emerging tick-borne illnesses create new challenges not only for patients, but also for rural health care providers who need access to testing, resources and up-to-date training to respond quickly and effectively.

That is why rural health care systems must also be responsive to emerging threats and changing realities, which includes the resources and diagnostic tools necessary to identify and treat conditions like Lyme disease early.

There are also positive examples of rural communities and farmers working proactively to strengthen rural medicine.

A program called Discovery Week is a mandatory one-week placement in rural and regional communities at the end of the first year for all undergraduate medical students at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University in London.

This program has been in place since 1998, and it was in the early 2000s that the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture began hosting these students on tours of local agriculture to learn about farming and the types of injuries or emergencies that can happen in agricultural settings.

This marked the second year of expansion for the farm tour program, which is now up to eight tours taking place in Bruce, Grey, Essex, Elgin and Oxford counties with the support of the local federations of agriculture. Students were able to climb onto farm equipment, see robotic milking equipment in action, try on farm safety gear and meet farmers and farm employees, including seasonal international workers.

That kind of collaboration matters.

What also matters is including farmers and rural residents in conversations about rural health care planning like hospital services, hours of operation, staffing needs and where new health care facilities should be located. Rural Ontario has unique realities that need to be understood by decision-makers.

Ontario’s health care system is under pressure everywhere, and health care workers continue to do incredibly valuable work under difficult circumstances. They deserve our thanks and support.

But rural Ontario cannot continue to fall behind. Strong rural health care systems are essential not only for the health and safety of farm families, but also for the long-term sustainability of our communities, our rural economy and Ontario agriculture itself.

For more information or to arrange an interview:

Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883
[email protected]