The provincial government is calling for proposals that it hopes will connect 300,000 to primary care teams this year, targeting communities where thousands of people don't have access to a family doctor.
The province is spending $213 million "to create or expand up to 80 primary care teams." Most primary care teams in Ontario include family doctors, but they can also include nurse-practioner-led clinics, other community health centres and Indigenous primary health care organizations, and the call for applications includes those models.
The Ford government has promised to "connect everyone in Ontario to primary care by 2029," and pledged to spend $1.8 billion to do it.
“Through our government’s record investments in primary care, Ontario has achieved the highest rate of access to a regular health care provider in the country,” Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a press release. “To continue to build on this progress, we are taking the next step to 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' office said the first call for funding proposals is targeted to postal code areas "that have the highest number of people not connected to primary care, averaging 8,000 people unattached per postal code."
The areas include urban and rural communities across the province and can be seen on the map below.
Prospective health teams will be asked to demonstrate how they will connect the maximum number of people living within their identified postal codes to primary care. They will be required to work with their local Ontario Health Team and their Primary Care Network to submit a proposal.
The call for applications closes on May 2. The government expects to select and announce successful teams this summer and launch a second call for proposals in September, spending an additional $22 million to support existing primary care teams. Jones' office says this will attach everyone on the Health Care Connect waitlist as of January 1, 2025 to a primary care team over the next year.
It's part of the efforts of Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, a former federal health minister.
“Together we are building a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient, and connected for every single person in Ontario,” said Philpott in a news release. “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.”