Report on behalf of the Primary Health Care Expert Advisory Committee

Dear AFHTO members: As you see below, Minister Hoskins has released the Report on behalf of the Primary Health Care Expert Advisory Committee and invited feedback. With the AFHTO Conference less than two weeks away, we have a ripe opportunity to engage members in developing AFHTO’s response.  AFHTO staff and the AFHTO board executive are working through the opportunities in the conference program, and will be back to you with updates early next week. As it says in the title of AFHTO’s 2015 Annual Report, released yesterday in the Annual General Meeting notice – we have Collective Impact: The Power to Shape Our Future. We look forward to the discussions at the AGM and conference. Angie Angie Heydon, Chief Executive Officer Direct phone: (647) 234-8503 | Email: angie.heydon@afhto.ca

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On behalf of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, I’m pleased to provide you with a copy of the Baker-Price Report on Primary Care. Our government is committed to improving performance, accountability, and access in Ontario’s primary-care sector. Our priority is to put patients first by ensuring that primary-care providers and services are organized around the needs of the population. This includes ensuring access to a primary-care provider for every Ontarian that wants one. That is why we engaged a panel of experts to provide advice on how to improve the delivery of primary care for Ontarians. The panel, led by Elizabeth Baker and Dr. David Price, was asked to provide advice on ways to better integrate primary-care providers with each other and within the health-care system. They also looked at how we can continue improving access to primary care and to interdisciplinary care teams. We thank the panel for their work and their report. The report is one of many pieces of advice the government is considering when discussing how to strengthen primary care in Ontario. This report, along with the recommendations of other reports submitted to the government over the past few years, will help inform our work as we go forward. It’s important to know that as we go forward we do not intend to create additional layers of administration. We are focussed on ensuring Ontarians are connected to a primary care provider and can see them in a timely way when they are sick. We are also committed to letting patients choose their own provider. I look forward to discussing the future of primary care with you as soon as you’ve had an opportunity to develop your thoughts – and am happy to answer any questions you may have now. Jesse Rosenberg Director of Policy Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long Term Care