Marlene Spruyt is a retired family and public health physician who is alarmed at how the access to primary care in Ontario has progressively worsened in the past decade. It is particularly worrisome in rural areas where over the past year we have experienced an unprecedented number of unscheduled Emergency room closures and an inability to recruit new practitioners. Successive governments have failed to invest in healthcare; to train and fund sufficient numbers of healthcare providers and to maintain and expand the infrastructure needed to deliver quality care across the province. Poverty, homelessness and severe weather events related to climate change further threaten our physical and mental health. Every resident in Ontario regardless of geography should have access to a primary care provider supported by a multi-disciplinary team.

Having spent most of her life in small rural communities across Ontario, Marlene understands the need to fight for the reduction of provincial downloading which is overwhelming these communities and reducing their capacity to serve their local residents and limits their ability to improve their local infrastructure to deal with the threats of severe weather events.