Help protect your community pain clinic
Proposed changes to OHIP funding could force local pain clinics to cut services or close. Patients need a plan before anything changes.
Two minutes, one letter. Your message goes to your own MPP, the Premier and Health ministries.
The Issue
The Ontario government is proposing changes to how chronic pain treatments are paid for through OHIP.
Those changes could mean patients lose access to treatment their physician says they need, and some patients could lose their community clinic altogether.
Thousands of Ontarians rely on these clinics for ongoing treatment of severe, long-term pain. If a clinic closes, many of its patients will have few places left to turn.
What patients stand to lose
What’s at Stake
Changes to OHIP funding could disrupt the care that many Ontarians depend on to manage pain, stay independent and take part in everyday life.
Losing your clinic
Community pain clinics could be forced to cut services or close. Patients who have been treated at the same clinic for years could lose their care team overnight.
Essential treatments
Nerve blocks, therapeutic injections and other procedures help people manage pain day to day. If they are harder to get, patients face more pain, less mobility and a lower quality of life.
Longer waits, farther travel
Patients may have to travel farther or wait much longer for treatment. Hospitals and specialists may not have room for everyone displaced from community clinics.
More medication, more ER visits
People who lose effective pain management may need more medication, including opioids, or turn to emergency departments. That adds pressure to a system that is already stretched.
Vulnerable patients hit hardest
Seniors, people with disabilities, people on fixed incomes and rural residents may not be able to travel to another provider. Any gap in treatment hits people with severe pain the hardest.
Take Action
Tell your MPP: no changes without a plan for patients.
Your MPP needs to hear from the people this would affect. Patients, caregivers and health professionals can send a letter in a few minutes. Your message goes to your own MPP, and copies the Premier and Minister of Health, Associate Minister for Mental Health Addiction and their Parliamentary Assistants.
The letter asks for one thing: continuity-of-care safeguards in place before any OHIP changes are implemented. You can edit it, and you can add your own words about what losing your clinic would mean for your health, your independence, your work and your family.
It takes a few minutes, and it makes a difference. Letters will be reviewed by the Ontario government.
Share Your Story
Real experiences change minds at Queen’s Park. If you live with chronic pain, care for someone who does, or treat patients in a community clinic, tell us what access to your clinic means to you.
We will only use your story the way you tell us we can.