NOSM Partners with HealthForceOntario to Improve Access to Health Care in the North

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency (HFO MRA) have signed a collaboration agreement in order to increase access to health professionals in Northern Ontario.

The goal of this collaboration agreement is to help create sustainable health systems in the communities of Northern Ontario, resulting in better health outcomes for patients in the North. Specifically, NOSM and HFO MRA will look to:

• Increase health professionals in Northern Ontario, especially physicians practising in high needs areas, including Indigenous, Francophone, remote, rural, and underserved communities.
• Collaborate to match communities with specific needs to learners interested in working in those fields.
• Reduce communities’ reliance on temporary locum health professionals.
• Address policy issues and barriers that affect Northern health professional recruitment and retention.
• Increase the supply of physician educators in the North.
• Track trends in order to inform future health human resource decisions.

“Patients in rural, remote, and Northern communities are just as deserving of access to quality care as other Canadians,” says Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Dean. “Through this partnership, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and HealthForceOntario will work together and with our community partners to develop sustainable health systems in the North—ensuring communities attract and keep the health professionals who provide the care their citizens need.”

“We are excited to be working with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to increase access to quality care for patients in Northern communities,” says Roz Smith, Executive Director, HFO MRA. “It is through collaboration with NOSM and other community partners that sustainable health-care systems can be developed, and better outcomes for patients in the North can be achieved.”

The term of agreement is for three years, from July 2016 to June 2019.

For more information about how NOSM is working to increase access to health care in Northern Ontario, read NOSM’s Report to Northern Ontario.
About HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Strategy
HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency (HFO MRA) builds and maintains the province’s health human resources capacity by supporting the government’s strategic direction of health workforce planning and assists with the planning, recruitment, retention, transition and distribution of health professionals in Ontario. Working with its partners – including communities, Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), the Government of Ontario, recruiters, health professionals and a host of others – HFO MRA aims to achieve the vision of helping to ensure Ontarians have access to the right mix and number of health professionals, where and when they are needed.