Winter 2024 Highlights: Ministry of Health Quarterly Meeting and AFHTO Leadership Council

AFHTO and the Primary Health Care Branch will be meeting February 16th, 2024.  AFHTO Leadership Council met on February 2nd, and below are highlights from that meeting and updates on work that is underway.

Enterprise Canada Presentation on Ontario Community Health Compensation Market Salary Review Advocacy Accomplishments and Next Steps:

• Carly Bergamini, Director from EnterpriseHealth joined the call for a brief presentation on the Ontario Community Health Compensation Market Salary Review advocacy and government relations achievements since the release of the report. The Executive Summary of the report can be found here.
• EnterpriseHealth, along with the association partners, held meetings with government officials to present the report and findings. These meetings were well-received, with the government acknowledging the scope of the issue.   
• AFHTO encourages teams to continue reaching out to their MPPs on this topic and are happy to provide pre-budget submission messaging and template agenda and will review member presentation material as requested.   

AFHTO Strategic Plan Launch:

• AFHTO recently put out an RFP for bids on the strategic planning project they will be beginning.  
• A strategic planning task force was formed from members of the board and upon review and evaluation for received proposals, have awarded the contract to EnterpriseHealth who have already begun to work with AFHTO on this endeavour.
• The AFHTO Leadership Council will be joined by members of EnterpriseHealth at the March 1st meeting for a strategic planning engagement session.    

Ontario Health Presentation on PCN Development:

• Dave Pearson, Director of Primary Care at Ontario Health joined the call to give an update on PCN development and answer any questions ALC had.  
• The 12 accelerated OHTs must provide a plan related to their PCN readiness assessment on their path forward. While completing the readiness assessment is only mandatory for the accelerated OHTs, Ontario Health will accept readiness assessments from other OHTs and PCNs from across the province.  
• PCNs are being seen as being the voice for primary care in the community. Priority should be given to having clinicians in the PCN.

2024 pre-budget submission:
On January 30th 2024, AFHTO submitted recommendations to the government for the 2024 budget. AFHTO has five key recommendations:

1. Further invest in the expansion of interprofessional primary care teams in Ontario
2. Address the health human resource (HHR) crisis in primary and community care through the investment of $500M annually in the community sector over the next five years.
3. Support the implementation of primary care networks.
4. Invest in the digital health of primary care.
5. Embed and connect mental health and addictions services in primary care teams.