AFHTO Media Statements

AFHTO's 2023 Pre-Budget Submission

February 6, 2023

Our 2023 Pre-Budget Submission highlights several points in:

  • Investing more in Team-Based Care
  • Addressing the HHR Crisis
  • Providing mental health and addictions services
  • Providing resources to support the implementation of PCNs

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Primary Care Leaders Urge Canada's Premiers and Federal Government to Strike a Deal That Focuses on Expanding Team-Based Primary Care Including Access to a Primary Care Provider

February 6, 2023

The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) is encouraging Premiers across the country, and the federal government, to strike a new Canada Health Transfer agreement that will focus on expanding team-based care and ensure that every Canadian has access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner within an interprofessional team.

At this critical time, political leaders across the country can make a real impact on Canada's ongoing healthcare crisis. Research shows that high-performing healthcare systems are based on a strong foundation of comprehensive primary care. But millions of Canadians from coast to coast, including the Indigenous peoples and communities of Canada, are currently unable to access the care they deserve.

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Federal funding must be directed to team-based primary care across Canada

November 8, 2022

This is AFHTO's call-to-action to the health ministers to prioritize team-based primary care and to address the HHR crisis.

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Bright Lights Awards

October 12, 2022

On October 12, AFHTO named the winners of our eleventh Bright Lights Awards at our ceremony at our annual conference. These innovators have improved access to primary care through their leadership, outstanding work, and significant progress made toward the value delivered by interprofessional primary care teams throughout Ontario. Bright Lights Award winners are innovators and team players whose work has an impact on the healthcare system and in the lives of their patients and communities.

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Strengthening Mental Healthcare Delivery In Primary Care

October 3, 2022

The Ontario Medical Association and the Primary Care Collaborative released a joint policy paper with recommendations to strengthen mental healthcare delivery in primary care.

The rate of new mental health and addiction diagnoses is increasing, exacerbated by the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Approximately three-quarters of Canadians rely on their primary care provider to address their mental health needs, but there are longstanding system gaps that must be addressed to enhance the ability of primary care to deliver mental health care.

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Full news release here

 


The Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario's Response to Ontario's 2022 Spring Budget

April 29, 2022

On behalf of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) members across the province, AFHTO welcomes the investments in home care, mental health care, and health human resources in the 2022 Ontario Budget, Ontario's Plan to Build.

The investments will help strengthen the critical areas of home care and mental health care in our health system and expand access to care. AFHTO also recognizes that the government understands the need to invest in the health care workforce, while building the health human resources workforce of the future, specifically in underserviced communities. However, the challenges in primary and community care remain significant given lower funding and salary limits. AFHTO continues to urge the Ontario government to expand access and funding to team-based primary care to provide comprehensive care for Ontarians.

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AFHTO's 2022 Pre-Budget Submission

February 11, 2022

Our 2022 prebudget submission highlights several points regarding:

  • The HHR Crisis
  • Integrating health care across Ontario 
  • Prioritizing digital data and equity 
  • And creating a culturally safe health care system to address health inequities

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Inequities in Ontario's online health card renewal system must be addressed so marginalized people are not left behind

December 7, 2021

The Alliance for Healthier Communities (Alliance), the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO), the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council (IPHCC), and the Nurse Practitioner-led Clinic Association (NPLCA) call on the government to address the inequities in the online health card renewal system.

The Ontario driver's licence and the Ontario photo card are government-issued cards that show proof of identity and proof of residency, and they are both accepted for in-person renewal. The government accept the driver's license for online renewal, but not the Ontario photo card.

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Truth And Reconciliation Day Statement From The Primary Care Collaborative

September 30, 2021

On the inaugural National Truth and Reconciliation Day being recognized today across Canada, the Primary Care Collaborative values the opportunity and responsibility to acknowledge some of the actions that can help support better understanding of colonization, the trauma of residential schools for Indigenous people and communities, and the ongoing impacts of systemic racism, and the steps to create safer spaces and change for Indigenous health and wellbeing.

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Directive 6 Must Apply To Patient-Facing Team-Based Primary Care Providers During COVID-19

September 21, 2021

This showcases our letter to the premier regarding directive 6 to apply to patient-facing team based primary care providers during COVID-19.

On August 17, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health issued Directive #6, mandating certain high-risk settings (including hospitals and community care service providers) to have a COVID-19 vaccination policy for employees, staff, contractors, students, and volunteers. This directive was issued to “protect vulnerable patients and staff in settings where the risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 and the Delta variant is higher.” Smaller health care facilities may want to look to the provincial directive as a tool to support their own policy development.

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We must all protect ourselves, our communities, and our healthcare system

August 11, 2021

The Alliance for Healthier Communities, the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, and the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association strongly encourage all Ontarians to protect themselves and others against COVID-19 by getting the vaccine and call on the government to implement vaccine certificates.

Science shows that the Delta variant is highly contagious, even with only one dose of the vaccine. It is now the dominant strain in Ontario, and with only 72% of the eligible population fully vaccinated – or 63% of the total population – the risk of transmission is still too high.

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Need For Indigenous Cultural Safety Training And Education For All Public Servants

August 4, 2021

Our letter to the premier addressing the ongoing systemic racism that Indigenous people and communities face. Throughout the pandemic, the challenges of COVID-19 have intersected with other public health challenges and emergencies and we’ve seen that racism can create and maintain barriers – to vaccinations, to people getting the services and care they need, and to healing. The impacts of racism, intolerance and lack of understanding contribute to ongoing trauma experienced by Indigenous people and communities. 

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Primary Care Collaborative Looks Forward To Working Closely With New Ontario Chief Medical Officer Of Health Dr. Kieran Moore

June 2, 2021

Over the past several months, the PCC has worked closely with decision makers on primary care's involvement in vaccination efforts in the province. Through this work we met regularly with Dr. Moore in his role as Medical Officer of Health for Kingston, Frontenac, and Lennox & Addington Public Health (KFL&A) and as a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Distribution Task Force. It comes as no surprise to the members of the PCC that KFL&A Public Health continues to be publicly recognized for its exemplary response to address the COVID-19 pandemic due to the strong leadership of Dr. Moore.

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Ontario Government’s Paid Sick Leave Legislation Doesn’t Go Far Enough

April 30, 2021

This announcement is meant to address the paid sick leave statement issued by the Ontario Government.

Ontario government finally recognized paid sick leave is important to the health and safety of Ontario’s essential workers, the Primary Care Collaborative remains concerned that the legislation passed, which gives up to three paid sick days through employers, does not go far enough to protect employees, and may create new barriers to accessing income support benefits.

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PCC Calls For More Supports For Essential Workers And Workplaces, More Robust Community Vaccination Rollout & Isolation Supports

April 17, 2021

The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) echoes the alarms being sounded by our healthcare and public health colleagues since Friday. There was no doubt given the modelling from the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table Advisory Board on Friday afternoon that additional measures were and are necessary to help slow the spread of the virus in our province, particularly the spread of the more contagious and deadly variants of concern.

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Stay-At-Home Order Welcome But More Needed

April 7, 2021

The Primary Care Collaborative welcomes the Ontario Government’s announcement of new provincial measures to stop the alarming spread of COVID-19. While the vaccine rollout continues across the province, we are in a race against the variants, and bold action was needed to protect all Ontarians, particularly those most marginalized. We recognize the collective exhaustion with COVID-19 restrictions, including among primary care providers, yet the stay-at-home order is necessary if we are to turn the tide on the pandemic. 

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Ontario Needs A Stay-At-Home Order

April 6, 2021

Amid an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the Primary Care Collaborative shares concerns expressed by the Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario Medical Association, Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, and other healthcare providers that the province needs stronger measures to curb the growing spread of the virus. Ontario’s Science Table has confirmed how dangerous the variants of concerns are, including an increased risks of serious illness and death. As the number of cases and hospitalizations increase daily, it is vitally important that Ontario enforce stricter public health measures and roll out policy initiatives to curb the spread of these deadly variants of the COVID-19 virus.

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The Primary Care Collaborative

March 29, 2021

During COVID-19, we see again and again across Ontario that communities – from people living in large urban centres to smaller cities to towns and rural areas – depend on their local family physicians, family health teams, community health centres, Indigenous primary health care teams, nurse practitioner-led clinics, and other primary care providers in a public health crisis.

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Heart of Health Care 2021 Ontario pre-budget submission

February 16, 2021

Our 2021 Pre-budget submission highlights several points in:

  • Access to Better Care
  • More Integrated Care
  • Accessible and Continual Care

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It takes a team: 2020 ontario pre-budget submission

January 17 2020

Our 2020 Pre-budget submission highlights several points in:

  • Increase Access to Interprofessional Team Based Primary Care
  • Invest in Clinical Leadership to Ensure Successful rollout of OHTs
  • Embed Mental Health and Addictions Support in Primary Care
  • Help end hallway health centre by embedding home and community care coordination with primary care
  • Support digital health options in primary care

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AFHTO 2019 Ontario Pre-budget submission

Our 2019 Pre-budget submission showcases several points:

  • Mental Health and Addictions
  • Home and Community Care Coordination with Primary Care
  • Increase Access to Interprofessional Team-Based Primary Care for More Ontarians
  • Supporting the Quality Agenda by Supporting Improvement

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AFHTO 2018 Ontario Pre-budget submission

Our 2018 Pre-budget submission highlights several points in:

  • Increase access to Interprofessional team-based care teams
  • Invest in Meaningful Measurement in Primary Care that allows movement for improvement
  • Ensure seamless transition of care coordinators into Primary Care

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AFHTO 2017 Ontario Pre-budget submission

Our 2017 Pre-budget submission is a combination in several points regarding:

  • Continue on the path to stabilize the primary care workforce 
  • Broaden access to interprofessional team-based care teams 
  • Ensure seamless transition of care coordinators into primary care
  • Invest in meaningful and measurable measurement

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