The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

15 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,A pril 23,2020 theifp.ca #Dotherightthing Doctors. We lead you to better health. Doctor's Office Closures Put Patient Care At Risk For more information: protecthealthcare.ca Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians could be affected according to survey of Ontario doctors They asked for our leadership, along with other health care professionals and frontline workers, to help stop the spread of COVID-19, so we stayed at work, while everyone stayed home. They asked us to worry only about patient care and they said they'd have our backs. They asked us to delay medical procedures for hundreds of thousands of people to ease the pressure on the health system. We supported that, even though we knew it could create longer wait times once the crisis is over. They asked us to put our lives and the lives of our loved ones on the line and said they'd help protect us by equipping us properly. They asked us to carry on delivering care for COVID and non COVID related patients and they'd remove all the barriers, including how we get paid for the new way of delivering care. We did what was asked of us and will continue to do what's right for patients. Now the sustainability of Ontario's healthcare system is at risk. We are staying open and available but they're asking us to wait until June to get paid after we didn't waste a minute changing the way we delivered care through virtual means. No other essential service workers paid by the province are asked to serve the public for nothing for the next few months. Pretty soon, hundreds of thousands of patients could be left without care because doctors can't afford to pay staff and their bills to keep their offices running. To get this province back to economic health you need a healthy population. That's on us, the doctors of Ontario. If we have to close our offices and leave patients without care, that's on you, Government of Ontario. Now we are asking you - our provincial leaders - do the right thing and fix this!