Premier Ford attends CMH ribbon cutting, discusses decision to ban international students from Ont. medical schools

Doug Ford addressed his decision to block international students from attending Ontario medical schools while celebrating the expansion of a Cambridge, Ont. hospital.

The Premier stopped at Cambridge Memorial Hospital on Friday to cut the ribbon on a new wing.

The provincial government invested over $220 million into renovating the 400,000 square foot space, which includes an expanded emergency department, surgical suites, a new ICU and 52 inpatient beds.

“It will empower our skilled physicians, clinicians and staff to continue delivering world class care,” said Colleen Bull, chair of the patient and family advisory council. “This space is for the generations who built this city and for those who will find care and compassion in wing B.”

The new wing at CMH will also include enhanced laboratory and diagnostic imagining departments, as well as state-of-the-art birthing suites, three radiology rooms and a new nuclear medicine unit to help detect and treat cancer and other diseases.

Officials believe the hospital will be able to care for 30 per cent more patients thanks to the new wing.

Ford’s take on international students

The Premier used his time at the ribbon cutting to talk about his decision to block international students from attending Ontario medical schools.

Ford made it clear he believes foreign students should find somewhere else to study so doctors from local communities can fill the shortages throughout Ontario.

“God bless foreign students, but they have to find somewhere else to study. We can’t sacrifice one of our kids becoming a doctor and living in the area that they grew up and going to school, and so now it’s 100 per cent Canadian. Out of the 100 per cent, 95 per cent have to be Ontarians,” he said.

According to the Ontario College of Family Physicians, around 2.4 million people in the province don’t have a family doctor.

Experts worry that by 2026, that number could swell to 4.4 million.

“One of our biggest challenges in health care is that nearly one in four people can’t find a family doctor. That’s why we’re calling on government to increase recruitment, and then also retention. So keeping the family doctors that we have, making sure that practice is sustainable,” said Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the Ontario Medical Association, in a recent interview with CP24.

Ford believes that by making medical school placements only available to local students, the province will see more retention to help fill the gap.

“Our Ontario kids, they’d be going to Ireland, or they’d be going to the U.S., or they’re going to the Caribbeanm and guess what happens? They end up meeting someone, they don’t come back home, so we’ve cut that, we’ve cut that off,” Ford explained.