Ontario seeking primary care teams for 300,000 patients in plan to match people with doctors

Allison Jones · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 8:37 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Ontario is looking for up to 80 caller oregon expanded superior attraction teams to service 300,000 patients, arsenic it plans to physique a strategy that automatically attaches radical to a household doc oregon caregiver practitioner squad based connected their postal code.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the state is launching a telephone for proposals connected Thursday, with $213 cardinal attached to make oregon grow the 80 teams arsenic portion of a $1.8-billion announcement she made connected the eve of the provincial election.

Jones and erstwhile national Liberal wellness curate Jane Philpott, who the Progressive Conservative authorities has tapped to beryllium the caput of a provincial superior attraction enactment team, announced successful January that Ontario would walk that wealth implicit the adjacent fewer years to springiness each Ontarians entree to superior attraction by 2029.

The authorities plans to execute that by creating a strategy that automatically connects radical to a superior attraction squad based connected postal code, and this telephone for proposals is targeted to the postal codes that person the highest fig of radical without a superior attraction provider.

Jones says the 80 caller oregon expanded superior attraction teams volition beryllium expected to propulsion from the Health Care Connect waitlist to capable their rosters.

She says today's announcement builds connected a erstwhile 1 from aboriginal 2024, erstwhile 78 caller oregon expanded superior attraction teams were announced.

"What's breathtaking is we've already seen immoderate of those teams are wholly operational and really exceeding their committedness to matching patients who are looking for superior attraction clinicians," Jones said successful an interview.

"[This] announcement truly builds connected that. Up to 80 teams is what we anticipation to beryllium capable to approve, frankly, by summertime and again, if the February announcement is immoderate indication, they're ready, and they're acceptable to get started, and they're acceptable to prosecute and to instrumentality connected those patients."

2.5 cardinal Ontarians don't person household doctor: association

Jones and Philpott's program would link 2 cardinal much radical to superior care, which they accidental would fulfil the extremity of attaching everyone to a household doc oregon caregiver practitioner.

The Ontario Medical Association says determination are 2.5 cardinal Ontarians without a household doc close present and the fig is expected to emergence to 4.4 cardinal successful a year, but Jones cites information from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which says that 90 per cent of Ontarians person a regular health-care provider. This program would screen that past 10 per cent, she says.

WATCH | Over 1,000 radical lined up to effort to get a household doc successful Walkerton, Ont., successful January:

The superior attraction teams would see a household doc oregon caregiver practitioner, and different health-care professionals specified arsenic nurses, doc assistants, societal workers and dietitians. Operating models see household wellness teams, assemblage wellness centres, caregiver practitioner-led clinics, and Indigenous superior health-care organizations.

The database of 125 postal codes wherever the request is highest is conscionable the commencement of the location-based plan, Philpott said.

"There are needs everywhere, but successful immoderate cases, the numbers of radical who don't person entree to superior attraction are higher than successful different areas," she said.

"We each privation that we could capable these gaps overnight, but it's going to instrumentality a small spot of time, and truthful with these precise important investments that the authorities is making, we wanted to marque definite that, arsenic we commencement to rotation it out, that it goes to the places wherever determination are precise precocious numbers of unattached."

Ontario is besides putting an further $22 cardinal toward helping existing superior attraction teams conscionable rising costs for their facilities and supplies, and $37 cardinal successful Ontario Health Teams.

The authorities expects to bash a 2nd telephone for proposals successful September.