Interim Ontario PC leader Jim Wilson and Huron Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson held a round table in Belgrave with local family health teams to discuss challenges they are currently facing.
Going around the room, concerns ranged from the need for more funding and communication from government, to issues such as staffing and how needs of rural teams is different than in the city.
One thing that was unanimous among those in attendance was the need for improved communication and support to rural health care. Many have issues with what teams called a complicated application approach and inconsistent management of data.
Lisa Thompson says one cause of the problems is rural groups currently falling under the same template as urban centres.
"There's 110 family health teams in rural Ontario (out of 185)," She says. "They matter, cookie cutter approaches are not working in this case."
Interim leader Jim Wilson says that more attention needs to be paid to mental health as well.
"It's something we need to get a handle on," he says. "An all party approach seems like the best way to go."
