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Dr Adam Kassam and Allen O'Dette stand outside of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Ontario Medical Review
Dec. 16, 2021

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of the Ontario Medical Review magazine.

Prescription for Ontario goes public

Widespread media coverage draws attention to health-care recommendations

The public release of Prescription for Ontario: Doctors’ 5-Point Plan for Better Health Care, the OMA’s health-care recommendations, was launched over a three-day period the last week of October. It was mentioned in the media 1,306 times, making it the association’s most successful proactive media effort to date.

CEO Allan O’Dette and President Dr. Adam Kassam travelled to Sudbury to present the Ontario Medical Association’s health-care recommendations for northern Ontario on Oct. 24. They visited the Crosses for Change memorial for victims of the opioid epidemic and spoke to local media about the OMA’s recommendations for addictions and mental health services.

On Oct. 25, the OMA held a roundtable discussion with local doctors at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and met with NSOM students. To launch the northern portion of the platform, the OMA held a virtual news conference with O’Dette, Dr. Kassam, NOSM Dean Dr. Sarita Verma and Dr. Sarah Newbery, assistant dean for NOSM’s physician workforce and answered questions from the media.

Get the full plan

We need a more collective way of thinking about health care, one that focuses on solutions, strengthens the alignment between patient priorities and system capacity, and directs provincial financial and human resources toward the best possible health outcomes.

Download Prescription for Ontario

Media highlights

On Oct. 26, O’Dette and Dr. Kassam hand delivered the Prescription for Ontario to political party leaders at Queen’s Park. Across Ontario, doctors also travelled to their local MPP’s constituency office to hand deliver copies of the recommendations. That same day, the OMA held a news conference where O’Dette and Dr. Kassam presented the recommendations and answered questions from provincial media.

Highlights of the media coverage include:

  • Queen’s Park Today featured the OMA as its lead story Oct. 26
  • CBC Metro Morning reported on our northern launch on Oct. 25 and interviewed Dr. Adam Kassam on Oct. 26
  • CP24 broadcast a prime-time panel with Dr. Kassam, District 9 Chair Dr. Stephen Cooper and OMA Long-Term Care Section Chair Dr. Hugh Boyd. That’s in addition to running our story on its ticker throughout the morning on Oct. 26 and at least two live reports: one about the pandemic backlog of 20 million health-care services and another focusing on the financial aspects of the plan and quoting CEO Allan O’Dette as saying “all parties need to roll up their sleeves”
  • Dr. Kassam spoke to CTV’s Colin D’Mello in person at Queen’s Park and appeared live on The Evan Solomon Show
  • The Canadian Press wrote about our platform and distributed the story to newsrooms across the country

That’s in addition to special sections on OMA.org, a dedicated issue of Ontario Medical Review and a special eight-page tabloid newspaper-style supplement.

Coverage was widespread and included:

The Crosses for Change photo opportunity on Oct. 24 attracted local media who spoke with O’Dette, Dr. Kassam and Denise Sandul, the mom behind the memorial, and was the lead story in the Sudbury Star on Oct. 25 and the northern platform launch its lead story on Oct. 26. In addition to being featured on CTV Northern Ontario, the OMA has been mentioned 416 times in media throughout northern Ontario.

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