Outcome of Meeting with ADM on Primary Care Recruitment & Retention

Outcome of AFHTO-AOHC-NPAO meeting with ADM on primary care recruitment & retention This morning representatives of our three associations met with senior Ministry staff to review the findings and recommendations of our joint report – Toward a primary care recruitment & retention strategy for Ontario. (See details below).  Ministry attendees included three members of MOHLTC’s Health Human Resources Strategy Division – Suzanne McGurn, ADM; Jeff Goodyear, Director, HHR Policy; and Debra Bournes, Provincial Chief Nursing Officer – as well as Phil Graham, Manager of the FHT Unit in Negotiations and Accountability Management Division. The ADM and Ministry staff were receptive to the report. They welcomed the information it contained, saying it validated a number of issues being looked into by the Health Human Resource Strategy Division. They particularly appreciated seeing the three associations representing all interprofessional models of primary care delivery working jointly on this issue, and doing so from the perspective of strengthening all of these primary care organizations. Two statements from the ADM stand out – “there is no disagreement with the principles in the report” and “timing is the big issue”. The key constraint is the province’s need to rein in spending. While the Drummond report does not endorse a continuation of public sector wage restraint (it suggests that broader public sector employers and bargaining agents should be responsible for bargaining outcomes and bear responsibility for delivering value for public money), there remains the possibility that public sector compensation restraint could be continued past March 31. The Ministry representatives clearly understand that the inability of primary care organizations to offer both the HOOPP pension plan and reasonable benefits creates significant disadvantage in competing for staff with other parts of the health system.  While the likelihood of funding increases for compensation in the next fiscal year is very small, the Ministry has agreed to look into the idea of giving greater flexibility to allow primary care organizations to go beyond the 20% cap for pension and benefits, within their current overall budgets. Immediately after this meeting we briefly touched base with Shawn Kerr, Policy Advisor for primary care in the Minister’s Office and will meet with him in the near future to discuss more fully.  As always, we will keep our members informed. For further information, please view past AFHTO, AOHC and NPAO message to members:

• Toward a Primary Care Recruitment & Retention Strategy for Ontario