AFHTO is pleased to share the launch of Health Quality Ontario’s (HQO) Learning Community Wave 6 in Advanced Access, Efficiency and Chronic Disease Management in Primary Care as a valuable learning opportunity for family health teams.  Advanced Access, Efficiency and Chronic Disease Management in Primary Care has been designed to assist providers in reaching this goal by offering Independent and Coach-Supported Learning programs.

On October 16-17, 2012, over 500 executive directors, board members, physicians, staff, stakeholder associations and government representatives will attend the AFHTO 2012 Conference.

AFHTO invites Family Health Team partners and stakeholders to consider the sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities at the upcoming conference.

MOHLTC has e-mailed the invitation below to FHTs.  Please follow up with your Ministry rep to get the full package, if you did not receive it.

SENT: July 24, 2012 4:57 PM

SUBJECT: FHT - Employment supports for physician assistant graduates 2012

Dear Family Health Team,

The first ever “Bright Lights” awards will be presented at the AFHTO 2012 Conference Awards Dinner, on October 16.  This award program recognizes the leadership, outstanding work and significant progress being made to improve the value delivered by Family Health Teams. There are 11 award categories corresponding to the themes of the AFHTO 2012 Conference.

May 25^th is the deadline to submit presentation abstracts and award nominations

Both parties involved in the negotiations have posted the following public statements:

"Family Health Teams should become the norm for primary care"

The statement above appears on p.24 of the 543-page Drummond Commission report, released this afternoon. Consuming over 40% of the province’s budget, health care receives much attention in this report (pp.145-202). There are a number of recommendations that are specific to FHTs/primary care, and are pasted below.

The Government of Ontario’s recently released Action Plan for Health Care puts a strong emphasis on primary care, placing “Family Health Care at the Centre of the System”.

Primary care is fundamental to the health of patients and our health system. Family Health Teams have been working hard to innovate, to improve care, and from that, to improve health. For this reason, AFHTO is pleased to see the Ontario Government is placing “Family Health Care at the Centre of the System”.

On January 17, Globe and Mail columnist Adam Radwanski wrote about the upcoming MOHLTC-OMA negotiations, focusing on costs and value for money (echoing the Auditor General of Ontario’s report). Unfortunately he used the term “family health team” when he was refering to physicians in capitated models in his statement, “The province will continue trying to get more family doctors away from fee-for-service.