On July 10, 2018 AFHTO's CEO sent this letter to Ontario’s new Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and Deputy Premier, the Honourable Christine Elliott. Extending our sincerest congratulations on her appointment, she also expressed our desire to work with the government in improving healthcare for all Ontarians. Excerpts include: "As one of your government’s goals is the promise to address the issue of hospital overcrowding and ending hallway medicine, creating a robust and well resourced primary health care system is a major solution to address this problem." "AFHTO members already serve 3 million Ontarians, including 900,000 that were previously unattached to primary health care. By limiting the expansion of team-based care Ontario has created disparities in access. This is highly problematic in a universal health care system and, unfortunately, has created a two-tiered primary health care system." "Primary health care in Ontario has come a long way, but there is a lot more work to do. AFHTO has three key goals which we hope your government will support:
- Ensure every community has access to team-based primary health care.
- Every patient and every community deserve team-based primary care, not just the 30% currently receiving it. The current system of two-tiered health care is not meeting Ontarians’ needs.
- Support team-based providers in their ongoing efforts to deliver exceptional patient care.
- FHTs, NPLCs and other interprofessional models of care provide high-quality, team-based care and are always working on improving patient outcomes. Supporting their work will accelerate quality improvement in primary health care.
- Increase the number of patients able to access team-based primary health care that includes mental health supports.
- Too many families in communities who are served by team-based primary care are unable to access these teams. These communities need existing teams to take on more patients which can only happen if the teams are allowed to grow. Individuals receiving team-based care experience better outcomes and higher rates of patient satisfaction."
To read the letter in its entirety, click here.