1) (Updated) Ontario reports 182 new measles cases, surpassing 1,600 since outbreak began

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Hannah Alberga, May 15, 2025

Public Health Ontario’s measles report says there have been 119 hospitalizations, including nine intensive care cases.

Of those hospitalized, 95 per cent were unvaccinated, including 89 children.

This is the third consecutive week Ontario is reporting that new cases are in the 200-range, which is on the higher end since experts started keeping track of weekly spread.

Southwestern Public Health Unit’s Dr. Ninh Tran called the province’s case count over the last few weeks “significant.”

His public health unit is still where most of the new cases are concentrated. However, he says most cases are no longer infectious.

“This week has been the highest week, and it is being driven by really good detection and significant transmissions in households,” Tran says.

Southwestern has had 104 new cases reported locally over the past week, he says, which is higher than the province’s data because of differences in reporting periods.

Measles cases in Alberta have reached nearly 400 since mid-March, infecting just over 120 kids under age five.

The highly contagious disease continues to primarily infect unvaccinated children, infants and teenagers, both in Ontario and Alberta.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

2) Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) launching this year in Orillia

Courtesy Barrie360.com and News Release

By Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital

Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) and the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) are pleased to announce the establishment of a Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU) in Orillia.   

The FMTU will provide residency training to new physicians undergoing their two years of Family Medicine practical training under the supervision of family physicians certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.  Successful completion of residency training is a requirement to practice medicine in Canada.    

“This marks an incredible advancement to our hospital’s longstanding and proud commitment to physician education that dates back more than 30 years,” said Dr. Kim McIntosh, OSMH Chief of Staff and a local family physician. 

Starting this July 2025, four first-year residents will begin training as part of the newly established FMTU.  In addition to the four first-year residents, two residents who completed their initial year of training at North York General Hospital last year will complete their second year in Orillia.

The FMTU program in Orillia will be headquartered out of the Friden Health and Wellness Centre at 300 Peter Street.

“We’re proud to be working with OSMH to open a new FMTU to train more future family physicians,” says Dr. Danielle Martin, Chair of the DFCM at U of T.

“This initiative aligns with Dr. Jane Philpott and the Primary Care Action Team’s commitment to expand primary care teaching clinics. We’re thrilled to be broadening the sites where we offer this training while simultaneously addressing the gap in access to primary care.”

“We’re equally excited about how the FMTU can positively impact training of comprehensive family physicians who may choose to make Orillia home longer term,” said Dr. McIntosh. 

“These residents will take on patients who will be rostered to the FMTU.  Experience has shown that a strong percentage of them are likely to establish a permanent practice in the community once their residency has concluded, which creates a steady flow of new doctors into our area.” 

The Orillia FMTU will work closely with the Couchiching Ontario Health Team (COHT) to attach patients to physicians and learners within our community.  Orillia and area residents without a family doctor are encouraged to register through the COHT Waitlist. 

For more information about the Orillia Family Medicine Teaching Unit, visit our website: www.osmh.on.ca/fmtu

3) MedicAlert introducing technology that will allow 911 dispatchers to access records

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Katrine Desautels, May 12, 2025

MedicAlert bracelets are well known to most Canadians — a distinctive piece of jewellery that allows first responders to identify medical conditions in emergencies.

The MedicAlert Canada Foundation, the non-profit that oversees the program, has been aiming to modernize its services in recent years and will soon deploy technology that connects its members’ electronic health records directly to 911 dispatchers.

When an operator receives an emergency call from a number, software developed by the foundation automatically sends a message to MedicAlert’s computers asking if the phone number is linked to a medical record found in its database.

If it is, it pops up directly on the dispatcher’s computer screen.

“All of this happens in less than a second,” said MedicAlert Canada President Leslie McGill.

“Before they even dispatch someone to respond to the emergency, they can actually see all of the medical conditions, all of the information that’s available in that record, and what that does is help the first responder prepare before they even get to the scene.”

McGill believes this will mean vast improvement in the way emergency calls are handled. She cites an example of a diabetic person who is in need of medical help. An emergency responder who has access to such information before arrival would be better equipped to address the active health concern quickly and effectively. 

“It’s all about time, and in an emergency time is of the essence,” McGill said.

Canada is in the midst of implementing next generation 911 — what the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission describes as an overhaul that will provide quicker and more accessible communication during emergencies.

The initial deadline was March 2025, but that was extended to March 31, 2027 after most provincial, territorial and municipal emergency service organizations indicated they would not be able to make the necessary upgrades in time.

The MedicAlert Canada Foundation is working with the CRTC and hopes to have the project up-and-running in roughly 200 911 centres across the country, with a timeline of three-to-five years.

The foundation tested the technology in Ottawa in 2024. 

Before integrating the technology in the city, MedicAlert’s 24/7 emergency hotline had received 172 calls from first responders there in just one year. 

During the trial period, the computer system accessed 8,000 individual records. 

“That’s a significant number,” McGill said. There are about 50,000 subscribers in the capital.

Some cities are just beginning the process, while others are further along. 

Building the system is more complex in certain areas with poor telephone service, such as the territories or in northern Quebec and Ontario. But larger cities are ready to implement and McGill said they are working with Toronto.

The MedicAlert Canada Foundation is also developing a GPS product for people with Alzheimer’s disease. It already manages the MedicAlert Safely Home program — a national wandering registry for people with dementia, hosted in the Canadian Police Information Centre database. There are more than 65,000 people in this registry.

McGill said the special GPS product will hopefully be ready for 2026.

One of the challenges is the foundation is non-profit and its services are not covered by health insurance in any province.

“Since we’re a non-profit organization, part of the funds we raise to carry out our activities involves charging for the service and the digital health record,” McGill said. “Given the current economic situation and the uncertainty, it’s sometimes difficult for people to decide whether they want to pay for the service.”

The Canadian foundation is one of nine affiliates of MedicAlert Foundation, headquartered in the U.S. 

Since 1961, more than 1.5 million people have benefited from MedicAlert services in Canada alone. Of the 800,000 current subscribers, roughly 25 per cent are from Quebec, the second-highest enrolment figure after Ontario.

4) Ontario hospitals spent over $9B on agency staff over 10 years, study finds

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, May 12, 2025.

Ontario hospitals spent more than $9 billion on nurses and other staff from for-profit agencies in a 10-year period, a new study concludes.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study, released Monday, examined financial statements for 134 Ontario hospital corporations as well as data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. 

It found that from 2013-14 to 2022-23 public hospital spending on staff increased six per cent, but their spending on private agencies increased 98 per cent.

Study author Andrew Longhurst also found that while the number of hours worked by agency staff in Ontario hospitals accounted for 0.4 per cent of all front-line worker hours in 2022-23, six per cent of hospitals’ labour costs went toward the private staff.

“So we’re seeing a really poor value for money in terms of what Ontario taxpayers are getting in return,” Longhurst said in an interview.

“What we’re seeing is that the growth in private agency staff is really crowding out hospital budgets and their ability to make investments in the long-term workforce.”

Hospitals turn to staffing agencies for qualified workers that can fill shifts on a temporary basis, but agencies charge double or even triple the regular hourly rate for their staff and hospitals want to reduce their reliance on them. 

Longhurst recommends phasing out staffing agencies over three years and ultimately banning them, as Quebec has set out to do.

Ontario recently re-introduced legislation – which was originally tabled in late 2024 but was not passed before the provincial election was called – that would require agencies to report billing or pay rate information and would allow the government to publish some of those details.

Some critics and advocates hope it’s a small step toward lowering and regulating agency fees, though Health Minister Sylvia Jones has not committed to that.

The increasing use of staffing agencies also does not appear to be solving the problem of staffing shortages, Longhurst said. He also found that from 2015 to 2024 the number of hospital job vacancies in Ontario increased by 331 per cent.

“The greater reliance and the increased spending on private agencies is really just driving hospital job vacancies,” he said.  

“You’re hollowing out your public sector workforce, because those folks that are moving into agency work are no longer available to be hired as permanent employees.”

Longhurst also recommends the province boost hospital base funding to the tune of $2 billion.

Rural and northern hospitals in particular rely on agency staff, and Longhurst’s study shows the issue of associated cost has become more acute for them.

While in 2013-14 most hospital regions in the province spent around three per cent of their total front-line labour costs on agency staff – including 3.7 per cent in the northwest region – by 2022-23 that had risen to 17 per cent.

5) Ottawa looks to off-load costly, seldom-used mobile hospitals bought for the pandemic

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Kyle Duggan, May 10, 2025

The federal government expects to spend about $7 million this fiscal year to store and maintain four custom-made, portable hospitals that cost taxpayers more than $200 million to buy — facilities meant to bolster overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic that were barely used.

Early on in the pandemic, as the federal government moved at breakneck speed to respond to a global health crisis, it issued rush orders for these Mobile Health Units.

They are deployable field hospitals designed to deal with acute respiratory illness cases and were meant to backstop overflowing hospitals.

But the facilities are now packed away in controlled storage spaces in Brockville and Chesterville, Ont., and the federal government is spending millions of dollars every year to maintain them there.

Documents obtained through the Access to Information Act reveal that off-loading the massive, technically complex structures — which were deployed during the pandemic but saw only a handful of patients — has turned out to be a difficult and slow-moving task.

The same documents also suggest Ottawa has been negotiating agreements to sell or donate the field hospitals since last year, and that GCSurplus, which handles surplus federal government assets, “aims to clear both warehouses by September 2025.”

While cost forecasts for the field hospitals for 2025-26 were redacted from the documents, the federal government has said it expects to spend 12 to 18 months and $8.4 million in maintenance fees to turn the facilities over to new owners.

“Public Services and Procurement Canada is actively pursuing multiple divestment avenues for Mobile Health Unit assets,” department spokesperson Nicole Allen said in an email. “This includes transferring the assets to other federal government departments, selling assets, and donating assets to eligible organizations and other levels of government within Canada.”

The four units take up 588 tractor trailers worth of space and need constant access to electricity to refrigerate medicine. Fully deploying one can take about seven weeks. One of the units takes 75 transport trucks to move — almost as many as pop star Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour.

Documents show PSPC struggled to get speedy approval to get rid of the units — after learning that the obvious places to off-load them already had smaller versions of their own.

“PSPC purposed all opportunities to donate the MHUs, such as working with Global Affairs Canada and National Defence to support situations in places such as Ukraine, Turkey, the Middle East and Libya. The department also received inquiries from municipal governments such as Toronto and Ottawa, to temporarily alleviate homelessness situations,” an internal government memo says.

“In all cases, it was determined that the MHUs did not meet the needs for various reasons, including the size of the units, the high complexity of deployment, the configuration of the equipment, the significant maintenance costs of these units, etc.”

Global Affairs Canada said there was no benefit to keeping the units or donating them to the international arm of the Red Cross. The government said the facilities “would not be practical for international deployments for humanitarian purposes,” according to an internal draft Public Safety slide deck from 2023.

The Canadian Red Cross maintains its own mobile health units, which are smaller and can be deployed quickly, while the Canadian Armed Forces has a 50-bed structure that does not come with an intensive care unit or advanced medical equipment.

Ottawa had allocated up to $300 million for the units at the outset of the pandemic in spring 2020, when it granted two contracts — one to Weatherhaven and another to SNC-Lavalin in a joint venture with Pacific Architects and Engineers — to build them.

Documents said the purchase followed a “limited tendering process” and the firms were chosen because they had made “similar types of structures” for National Defence.

As of Jan. 3, 2024, Ottawa had paid $124.9 million to Weatherhaven Global Resources Inc. and $82.1 million to SNC-Lavalin-PAE to build the units, an internal memo said.

Internal emails show procurement bureaucrats were frustrated because they were stuck managing the structures as their pandemic funding was running out. The units were supposed to be shipped off to another department, such as National Defence or the Public Health Agency of Canada. No other department wanted them.

The Department of Finance told PSPC to try to divest the assets back in October 2022. A year later, on Dec. 18, 2023, the Deputy Minister Emergency Management Committee, which originally endorsed the swift purchase of the health units in 2020, approved a plan to get rid of them.

A departmental memo signed by then-public services minister Jean-Yves Duclos, dated Feb. 27, 2024, declared them surplus and granted GCSurplus approval to sell them at below market value, sell off sub-components or donate them.

One procurement manager in November 2023 said it was “deflating” that it took a year after recommending next steps to get top-level officials to advance the file, only for the project to end up back at “square one” without a divestment plan or the goods declared surplus.

Ottawa ordered two of the units in 2020. Then, in the second wave of the pandemic in 2021, Ontario requested federal permission to use them, so the federal government ordered another two.

The two units dispatched in Ontario were temporarily deployed at Sunnybrook Health Sciences in Toronto and at Hamilton Health Sciences.

Neither one was actually used to deal with critical hospital overflow, federal documents said, although the one at Sunnybrook took in 32 “low-risk” patients, according to a 2021 media report.

Other provinces weren’t interested in requesting them because — according to Duclos’ 2024 memo — the “size (capacity) and design of the units made deployment and takedown complex and too long,” and provinces were short of health-care workers who could operate them.

The oxygen concentration system from one of the units was deployed to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, then was moved to a hospital in Northwest Territories in 2022.

The federal government donated the units’ expiring supplies to schools and moved some of their medical equipment into the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile.