Ontario has announced its first call for proposals to develop and expand up to 80 primary care teams to serve 300,000 patients this year as part of the provincial plan to build a system that connects individuals to a family doctor based on their postal code.
The province is investing $213 million to support the first call for proposals as part of the more than $1.8 billion the government is investing to add 305 new primary care teams across the province, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in an April 10 press release.
The first round of funding will “connect 300,000 more people to primary care this year—bringing us one step closer to our goal of connecting every person in the province to primary care,” Jones said.
Jones and Jane Philpott, the former federal Liberal health minister appointed by the Progressive Conservative government to lead a provincial primary care action team, said in January that Ontario would allocate funds over the coming years to ensure that all residents have access to primary care by 2029.
The province plans to accomplish this by establishing a system that automatically links individuals to a primary care team based on their postal code. The current request for proposals specifically focuses on postal codes with the highest populations of individuals lacking a primary care provider.
Jones said the 80 newly established or expanded primary care teams will draw members from the Health Care Connect waitlist to complete their rosters.
Under the new initiative, Ontario will continue to recruit and retain doctors and other health professionals and expand the number of community-based primary care teaching clinics.
Family care teams will be made up of a family physician or nurse practitioner as well as nurses, physician assistants, social workers, and dieticians, Philpott said.
“Together we are building a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient, and connected for every single person in Ontario,” she said. “In communities across Ontario, your primary care team will be your entry to care, where you will have a team of health professionals led by a family doctor or nurse practitioner to provide the care and services you need, when you need it, in a timely way.”
Jones first announced the $1.8 billion in funding just before the election was launched in Ontario at the end of January, saying the goal was to connect 2 million people to a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team within the next four years.
The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has said there are currently 2.5 million residents without a family doctor. It has predicted that number to increase to 4.4 million in a year, and said the provincial health care system is in “crisis.”
Jones has refuted the OMA’s assertions, saying data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates 90 percent of Ontarians already have a regular health care provider. She said the province’s plan aims to address the remaining 10 percent.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
