Where you live should not determine if you live.

Hardly a day goes by where challenges don’t surface relating to healthcare access for 800,000+ people living in Northern Ontario. Add to this the ongoing and serious challenges in hospital care in the North, and the frequent closings of emergency rooms in already underserved rural and remote communities.

But if you live in Northern Ontario, you are all too familiar with a third healthcare access issue. This is of course the necessity to regularly travel long distances for specialized medical care, unavailable in your community. For diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening medical conditions, advanced surgeries and a broad range of pediatric health conditions, thousands of patients in Northern Ontario must travel 500 km or more to reach care each year.

Traveling long distances inevitably means significant travel expenses. For many who are able to travel by car, existing government reimbursement programs such as the Northern Health Travel Grant, can cover a portion of these expenses.

However, for low-income individuals, who must travel by air to get care, the material cost of their travel is beyond their means. When faced with thousands of dollars in travel costs (airline, hotel, meals, taxis) many patients will cancel or delay appointments. This then leads to much worse health outcomes. It also leads to patients entering an already strained healthcare system, but in states of higher acuity, requiring more invasive treatments and greater resources.

In 1986, a charity emerged called Hope Air — its mission: to make sure people in need, who must travel long-distance to care, can do so, despite geographic or financial limitations they may face. Then and now, the charity is committed to the idea that everyone should be entitled to access quality healthcare no matter who they are, where they live, or what they earn. In 2023, Hope Air supported over 25,000 travel arrangements nationally, and over 3,300 arrangements for Northern Ontario patients who required airline, hotel, meals and ground transportation services free of charge.

Demand for Hope Air support in Northern Ontario increased over 100% over the past year, as more patients needed to travel far to reach care, and were unable to afford the costs. With demand and costs soaring, donor funding to Hope Air will be quickly exhausted. To meet the growing needs of Northern residents, and ensure equitable access to care, funding from the Government of Ontario is now essential. This funding would be a complement to existing programs to address the unique circumstances of patients in financial need.

With adequate funding support from the Province, Hope Air will be able to support over 8,000 travel arrangements a year for Northern Ontario patients.

Without such funding, Hope Air access support programs will be reduced or suspended, impacting thousands of patients in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Thunder Bay and 75 other Northern communities.

Communities across Northern Ontario have proclaimed today (June 7th) "Hope Air Day." Dozens of northern cities and towns join together today to advocate to the government for funding for Hope Air to continue its operations and reduce barriers of cost and distance in access to healthcare.

Investing in programs like Hope Air strengthens our healthcare system. It improves access to care for vulnerable residents and provides an essential service that should not be compromised or threatened. It addresses the unique circumstances of people throughout Northern Ontario, and delivers on Canada’s promise of equitable access to healthcare for all.

Mark Rubinstein is the Chief Hope Officer for Hope Air –– for more information on Hope Air Day, visit www.hopeair.ca/ontario