Advocacy for Primary Care: Empowering Ontario’s Healthcare Future
At AFHTO, we believe Primary Care Teams are at the heart of Ontario’s healthcare system. They provide comprehensive care that reduces costs, improves patient outcomes, and helps avoid unnecessary visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions. These teams—like Family Health Teams, Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics, and other innovative care models—are essential to meeting the growing demand for high-quality, accessible care across Ontario's diverse communities.
Our advocacy efforts are focused on securing sustainable, equitable funding for these teams. By advancing policies that integrate Primary Care Teams into Ontario’s healthcare reform, we ensure they are part of the solution to pressing challenges like long wait times and limited access to care. Investing in Primary Care Teams means investing in a healthier, more efficient healthcare system for all Ontarians.
Join us as we continue to push for policies that support these vital teams, reduce system-wide pressures, and improve health outcomes for every Ontarian. Together, we’re shaping the future of healthcare!
OUR PRIORITIES
ONTARIO'S PRIMARY CARE TEAMS ARE EAGER TO GROW – BUT CRITICAL SYSTEM PRESSURES CHALLENGE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF EXPANSION. AFHTO IS FOCUSED ON ADDRESSING THREE URGENT PRIORITIES TO ENSURE SUCCESS.
Ontario’s primary care teams are eager to grow – but critical system pressures challenge the sustainability of expansion. AFHTO is focused on addressing three urgent priorities to ensure success.
Read more in our 2026 Pre-Budget Submission!
Priority 1: Immediately Release the Remaining $115M in Committed Workforce Funding
Ontario has committed to expanding attachment capacity for 2 million more Ontarians – effectively adding a second story to the primary care system. But you cannot build up without first securing the foundation. The 12 million patients already attached depend on a stable, well-staffed team-based infrastructure that is currently at risk. The $115M in workforce funding supports the “invisible team” – nurses, social workers, dietitians, and other professionals who enable physicians and NPs to practice at full scope and safely manage larger patient panels. This interdisciplinary infrastructure is what allows each most responsible provider (MRP) to attach more patients.
The Impact:
Implement retention measures to prevent further attrition of essential workforce.
Offer competitive recruitment packages to address current vacancies.
Stabilize staffing before the next wave of team expansions.
Ensure MRPs can practice at the top of their scope by configuring team members to maximize efficiency and effectiveness – directly increasing attachment capacity per clinician.
Priority 2: Invest $430M Over 5 Years to Close the Structural Compensation Gap
The 2025 funding provided for recruitment and retention was a 2.7% increase when it has been more than five years since an increase was received. There remains a persistent 15-30% structural wage gap that must be addressed to stem the tide of staff turnover and burnout. This investment will align primary care compensation with market rates, attract family physicians, nurse practitioners, and allied health professionals into team-based practice where attachment capacity is highest, and enable new teams to become operational quickly and sustainably.
The Impact:
Aligns wages with market rates, improving recruitment and retention.
Attracts more physicians and NPs into high-capacity team-based care.
Expands access to preventive and chronic disease management.
Reduces avoidable emergency visits through strengthened team capacity.
Creates predictable wage progression essential for long-term workforce planning.
Priority 3: Remove Policy Barriers to Increase System Efficiency and Modernize Governance Structures
This includes formalizing AFHTO as the government’s primary consultation partner for primary care team policy, in strengthening primary care governance, and mandating equal primary care representation on Ontario Health Team boards. AFHTO also supports policy solutions like global budgets that improve efficiency and flexibility and allow teams to respond to local conditions. These measures cost nothing yet significantly improve implementation, uptake, and alignment across the system.
The Impact:
Ensures primary care expertise guides provincial and OHT-level decisions.
Strengthens community voice on team boards.
Enables teams to manage resources flexibly through global budgets.
Accelerates recruitment and operations by removing administrative delays.
Unlocks faster clinic expansion through streamlined capital approvals.
AFHTO Participation in Additional Pre-Budget Submissions
AFHTO has also played an instrumental role in supporting the development of two additional pre-budget submissions. We are proud to be a part of the Primary Care Collaborative and ForUsForYou submissions! Read more below:
Primary Care CollaborativePre-Budget Submission | ForUsForYouPre-Budget Submission |