These were the primary components of the work plan for Setting the Stage: a concerted action by the four Ontario networks; collaboration with government authorities; and collaboration with other provincial agencies.
It came as no surprise, in French please, that the two main conclusions of STS, Setting the Stage project, are that Southern Ontario is almost completely lacking in French-language health services and that francophones in the south wish to be served in their own language. Southern Ontario has only two francophone community health centres and six other health agencies that are fully or partially designated under the French Languages Services Act.
This is what people are experiencing. Seniors go to hospitals to obtain services. They have medical problems and they speak English with difficulty, but there is nobody there to speak to them in their language and thus avoid the potential for wrong diagnoses.
Take, for example, Jean-Marc Boisvenue, in Eastern Ontario, who is accustomed to having a family physician speak to him in French, as well as to his family. When he moves to London he has a hard time finding a physician. He therefore goes to a clinic where anyone can go, and takes a number. He speaks to a physician who tells me, because he works in the area of health research, that he does not understand why francophones wish to have services in French when they can speak English. We're not talking about 1950; we're talking about May, 2006.
Today, we want you to understand this above all: contexts vary. As the president stated, Southern Ontario is not Eastern Ontario, nor is it Northern Ontario. Even in New Brunswick, the context is not the same because of the potential critical mass of francophone communities. It is therefore important to emphasize the word context. There is a notorious lack of availability of French-language primary health services throughout Southern Ontario.
Finally, we drafted recommendations under our study. The recommendations of the Franco Health Network of Southern Ontario addressed the four strategic priorities identified at the provincial level, namely access points, human resources, training and prevention, and the planning and management of services. These priorities are keys to the development and implementation in Ontario of quality primary health care in French.