Book will be released one chapter at a time starting March 16

This weekend will mark the fourth anniversary of the day Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in the province in an attempt to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.  The following weekend marks one year since I resigned my ministerial and MPP positions and left Queen’s Park. 

To coincide with these anniversaries, “A Physician in the Political Arena: Ethics, Duty and the Pandemic” will be released this month. The book will be posted online one chapter at a time starting on Saturday, March 16. 

In part, this book is an account of the Ontario government’s response to the pandemic and the impact COVID-19 had on the province’s long-term care sector – as told from my perspective, both as a physician and the minister of long-term care. The book also presents the facts for urgent health care reform so that we can meet the demands of our growing and aging population.  

With talk in the news of preparing for the next pandemic, and the increasing concerns for individuals’ health problems related to long COVID, it is timely to share my understanding of what occurred during the initial waves of the pandemic and how governments and the medical community might better respond to future viral outbreaks.  

In looking forward, I strongly believe we need more input from physicians and medical professionals and less influence from hospital administrators and lobbyists, and health bureaucrats. We also need politicians who are committed to funding and seeing through meaningful health care reform beyond their four-year election cycles if we are to achieve a sustainable system. 

There needs to be greater public discussion of the health care crisis we are facing today and this book is meant to be a call to action. It is written with the hindsight of a cabinet minister and the foresight of a family physician who has been advocating for improved elder care and sustainable health care my whole career. 

What to expect in the book 

The early chapters are a retrospective look at my life before politics – growing up in Kanata and my service to the community as a family physician. There are chapters on my ministerial responsibilities and the first months at the Ministry of Long-Term Care. There is a detailed review of activities during early 2020 and the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on Ontario’s long-term care sector. The book documents the public reviews of the government’s actions for long-term care conducted by the independent commission, auditor general, and ombudsman. The book closes with a look at needed reforms to ensure better elder care and a sustainable health care system in Ontario and across the country. 

Excerpts of each chapter will be released on the Dr. Merrilee Fullerton substack page with links provided to the chapter’s full text. The schedule of chapter releases runs through March and into April.  

There is a schedule of videos that will be released sharing some candid reflections of the ideas expressed in the book. 

Subscribe to my substack page without cost to ensure you will not miss a release.