SooToday has received the following open letter from the emergency department physician group at Sault Area Hospital regarding recent Ministry of Health funding cuts.
Dear Community Members,
As Sault Area Hospital emergency physicians, we are reaching out to share important news about a recent decision made by the Ontario Ministry of Health that will significantly impact emergency care at Sault Area Hospital.
On June 5, 2025, the Ministry of Health notified Sault Area Hospital of a 15 per cent reduction in physician services, equating to nearly 11 hours of coverage per day. Alarmingly, the ministry has insisted that this funding cut be applied retroactively to April 1, 2025, despite those services having already been delivered. The emergency department’s function depends entirely on physician availability. While the actual reduction in physician coverage will take effect July 1, 2025, this short notice gives us little time to prepare.
The ministry has chosen to implement a one-size-fits-all formula that completely disregards the realities faced by northern Ontario communities.
Let us be clear: this decision is not based on patient needs or data from our region — it is the result of an inflexible funding formula applied without meaningful consultation or consideration of local impact.
And while it is true that physician coverage is funded directly by the ministry, not hospitals, the consequences of this decision will be borne by our patients, staff and community.
We are already contending with severe pressures in our emergency department. Many in the community have limited or no access to primary care. The wait to see a physician in our emergency department is already 50 per cent longer than the provincial average. The Algoma district has one of the highest mortality rates from opioid use in the province, and significantly higher cancer rates. Wait times for child and youth mental health services can be over a year.
With this reduction in physician coverage, we anticipate: even longer wait times for assessment and treatment, especially on lower acuity patients; increased strain on an already overwhelmed care team; and heightened difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified emergency physicians.
As emergency physicians, our role is to ensure people with urgent and emergent issues are taken care of quickly and efficiently. As a consequence, patients with less urgent issues will likely have to wait long hours to be assessed. We’re already stretched to our limits. The health-care system overrelies on the emergency department. We know many patients have nowhere else to go, but this is not just a matter of inconvenience — it is a matter of patient safety. Now we’re expected to do more with less — again. This is not about budgets; our concern is whether people in our community will get timely emergency care when they need it most.
We have formally requested that the Ministry of Health immediately reverse this reckless decision. Moreover, we have urged the government to engage directly with hospital leaders across northern Ontario to design a funding model that reflects our unique challenges — not one that punishes us for not fitting into a provincial average.
It is unacceptable for our community to face diminished emergency services due to bureaucratic decisions made without local input.
We ask for your attention, your voice and your support as we continue to advocate for fair, sustainable and regionally informed health-care funding. The people of northern Ontario deserve no less.
Sincerely,
Emergency Department Physician Group
Sault Area Hospital