Database of health professionals
The lack of data to help identify practitioners who can provide health services in French has been raised many times in the past. In fact, it was the subject of a complaint that enabled the Commissioner’s Office to solve part of the problem in 2010.
The complaint helped isolate the root of the problem: the forms used by the professional colleges did not have a question on the languages in which their members could provide services. So professionals completing those forms had no opportunity to state that they could serve their patients in French. Since the information from those forms populates the database of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, this important information was excluded from the database. As a result, it was impossible to determine, for one thing, the current supply and geographic distribution of French-speaking health professionals in Ontario.
Intervention and mediation by the Commissioner’s Office helped resolve the complaint. But another challenge has since surfaced. The usefulness of such a database hinges on the quality of the data provided by the professional colleges. Furthermore, while the ministry has made efforts to publish HPDB data reports, general awareness of the existence and potential of this database, which makes it possible for the ministry to produce customized reports, should be improved. Such reports help health system officials plan the management of human resources or help postsecondary institutions forecast curriculum areas based on identified needs.
There is another issue. At the time of writing, the most recent data in the database were from 2013. Since then, many changes, such as retirements, transfers, dismissals or even hirings, have undoubtedly taken place among health professionals. It is inconceivable that, to date, data as important as the number of Francophone professionals in health care has not been updated annually.
Without up-to-date data, it is impossible to properly plan how many French-speaking health professionals will be needed in each region, for each regulated profession.
It is time to put patients first again, including Francophone patients, by offering them concrete avenues for finding health services in French. One possibility is to adopt the model used in the justice system, where the Ministry of the Attorney General and Ontario Court of Justice websites, for example, list the specific locations where the public can obtain services in French. Another solution would be to develop a mobile application that would direct Francophone patients to the appropriate health providers. Moreover, health professionals could use the mobile application when they have to refer their Francophone patients to a specialist. By working with the Entities, the LHINs should be able to offer the same basic information.
The Réseau de santé en français de l’Est de l’Ontario has developed an interesting tool: a system for collecting data and statistics that enables the Réseau to identify health care professionals who can provide services in French, details about the services, and where they are located in their region. This initiative makes it possible to generate essential information about the capacity to plan, evaluate performance, and make sound decisions, thus improving access to health services in French.
Recommendation 3
The Commissioner recommends that the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care elaborate innovative strategies so that individuals know where and how to obtain French-language health services. To that end, the Minister ensures to:
(a) make public an accurate picture of practitioners who can work in French across Ontario;
(b) annually collect, update and make readily accessible the data published on its website in the Health Professions Database; and
(c) produce easily accessible customized reports.