Toronto doctor Roland Wong said he has filled out dietary allowance forms for people who have been turned away by other doctors.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Dr. Wong: In 2003, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty found [the special dietary allowance]was a place where poor people can have some extra money. And if you can recall, [former premier]Mike Harris had cut back the benefits by more than 25 per cent and when McGuinty came in, there was very little increase. … Even today right? Today we have single people getting $570 for welfare and you can imagine that for that amount, you have $400 for rent, you have left over about $100 for food. That's a very difficult situation to survive on.
[These recipients are regarded as]scammers, these are bad people and so forth … even among the Ontario auditor's report yesterday you look at it and these people are scammers, right? They are very rich people now. The reality is that people don't have anything. And to make it such that they are rich people, that's a disservice to the community
If you put it all in perspective and taking a look at what Mike Harris has done in the past, then you realize that poverty is pervasive. And we know that poverty is the major determinant of health. Given that. how can we just let it go on?
As far as my filling out these forms, I have to follow whatever the regulation says, to make sure that people have the relevant medical conditions. It is not by some guesswork that I sign it. I have to ask the people, 'Do you have diabetes? Do you have pills? What kind of symptoms do you have, and how long have you had it?' If you're an older person and you're taking calcium, I assume you have some kind of osteoporosis and so forth.
So everything that is done has been done to them to whatever is required. The only difference that I've offered is that I'm not afraid to fill the forms. Most physicians are afraid to fill out the forms because social workers will come and ask them. … Doctors would prefer not to do those kinds of things. But I suppose I'm different enough to do it.
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How many people have you given forms to?
For today, I filled in about four or five. It depends. We had a big clinic on Friday, and I'm quite sure you noticed the demonstration at city hall and so on.
You filled out their forms?
Uh I believe so, but I don't know. They may have come in from other places.
Do you hold regular clinics?
No this was a so-called special hunger clinic. Because of my work I've come to the attention of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and obviously the initial complaint was put in by [councillor]Robert Ford. So the college now wants to check about the forms, whether I filled it in appropriately. …The first thing is they want to question whether they should issue an interim order against me - i.e., stop me in my tracks, as though I were one of those guys who sexually assaulted people, and so forth. Most of the times patients complain against their doctors for doing bad things to them - harm and injury. In this case, this was brought in by politicians. And I do not know how many other politicians jumped on that bandwagon. But in any case, those actions have been taken against me … and we will see.
Why do you think Councillor Ford did that, if you've been filling out the forms correctly?
Only Councillor Ford understands why he did what he did. As we all know, he's a politician. That's what he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be guarding the public's purse, he's supposed to be doing this and that. Not being a politician, I really would not know his intention.
How many people in total have you filled out forms for? For the past year, the past few years?
Oh I don't know. It must be hundreds and hundreds. I literally can't remember. The reason is I'm a specialist in community medicine. … I'm usually employed as a medical officer of health, but I prefer to work with the people in the community … because that's the way I like it: I prefer to interact with people directly.
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I'm quite sure a lot of people have filled in hundreds, too
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Have you ever turned anyone away, anyone who came to you with a form?
I now have to turn away people because I'm in such a controversial area now. If you ask me if people with a form come and say, 'Please help me,' I usually don't turn them away. I now turn them away, simply because of all this media attention at this time. I'd like the air to clear up first. And perhaps the politicians have done their job [to stop me] you know? I'd hate to say that.
Do you hold many clinics like the one Friday?
The Health Providers Against Poverty has had major clinics, even at Queen's Park they had major clinics where thousands of people were there.
And they all got forms?
They had forms. This is nothing special. It's been done before.
The people who came to the clinic on Friday, what health conditions did you put down for them?
Depending, each of them are individuals. If for example a typical person who is say 70 years old, common things you would have include things like hypertension and osteoporosis and some of them have no teeth. Poor people have very bad teeth. Bad nutrition, no dentist. So it is important that we do something.
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Most of these poor people have various health conditions; it's hard to say. They know that it's about medical conditions: If they don't have medical conditions, please don't come to me, otherwise it will be a waste of all our time.
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Is it appropriate to fill? If you have the condition, I fill. And then you look into the social context and say, 'Well, nobody wants to do it, and seeing there's a major need in society, I'll just do it.' It brings me a lot of grief of course, as you can see.
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I've seen doctors who have done it [turned people away] They've put a zero on their form and the poor fellow has to be on his knees before he can get anything, comes to me and says, 'Doctor, can you please help me? The doctor refused to fill in a form, regardless of what I say.' And so it's important we do those things.
And so you would help them, people who get rejected by their doctors?
Yes. There have been cases, many cases, actually. … Over a million people in this province do not have family physicians, and a lot of them really have doctors who do not understand this form. This form is very complex in the sense that in a very short time the doctor has to scan through so many conditions. And I believe they feel intimidated by this form, you know? And even social workers got confused by i when it first came out. … We have to educate doctors about this form, and about social conditions and the importance of poverty and health. And if they say, 'Well, I ordered all the screening, therefore [the patient's]health is better,' that's not true. It's that they have proper food, proper nutrition, proper accommodation.
So you think all people on social assistance need this supplement?
They need to have a raise of rates. This is not right. … There have been so many reports what we have done is a lot of hand-wringing and a lot of committees and a lot of panels. But it does not change the fundamental in that the basic rates have not been raised.
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So I'd like the auditor of Ontario to interview some of the homeless people and see how much they get before he opens his mouth and says people are getting $50,000 a year. When you talk in such a disparaging way there should be an audit on how you're writing your report.
What's happening now with the CPSO?
The next stage is they want to issue an interim order against me. They say that within the next, what is it now? By December 17 I have to reply to them.
And they will decide whether I have caused harm and injury to my patients. You realize this whole thing is brought against me by politicians - not patients. No patients have complained against me. I've helped people, not injure them.
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We'll see what they have to say when this strange Alice in Wonderland case comes through. Then we'll see.
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I don't even know right now if talking to you about what they would demand of me would cause me further grief. My lawyers may kill me for saying whatever I'm saying right now. I do not know. That will be a very interesting hearing, because it's the politicians against the doctor. Not the patients against the doctor.
This hopefully could stimulate some public debate and hopefully change things
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I don't want to break the rules. And if I admit I break the rules, I'm dead meat, too.
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If I were afraid, I would not have done all of this. I would have crawled under the carpet.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.