Family Health Teams from Wave 4 are beginning to move into the “fully operational” stage of their development. Health Minister Deb Matthews visited Wise Elephant FHT in Brampton to celebrate its opening with lead physician Dr. Sanjeev Goel and staff. One of Dr. Goel’s long-time patients enthused about how the practice has grown into a “one-stop shop” for meeting his health care needs. “The Wise Elephant Downtown Brampton Family Health Team will be able to provide increased access to care for over 9,000 people within the next five months. Family Health Teams are providing high quality care and services that are patient-focused across the province.” – Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care “The services provided by the doctors, nurses and all the team members at the Wise Elephant Family Health Team will improve access to care for families across Brampton. The team will be an invaluable resource for this community for many years to come.” – Vic Dhillon, MPP Brampton West “As a new Family Health Team, our focus will be on keeping our patients and their families healthy. By pulling together the expertise and services of family doctors and interdisciplinary health care professionals we are better able to meet the unique needs of our patients and improve access to high quality healthcare in Brampton. ” – Dr. Sanjeev Goel, Lead Physician, Wise Elephant Downtown Brampton Family Health Team
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Minister congratulates Centre for Family Medicine FHT on serving 5000 previously unattached patients
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews congratulated lead physician Dr. Joseph Lee and the staff of Kitchener’s Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team for having enrolled more patients than originally planned, including over 5000 who were previously unattached. She said, “It’s a shining example of what family health teams are all about.” The Health Minister used the occasion to announce that Ontario has helped one million more people find a family doctor since 2003. Local MPP and Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy, joined her in praising the FHT’s work.
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Mental Health in Family Health Teams and Primary Care Workshop
The Maitland Valley Family Health Team is hosting a day of networking, information sharing and professional development. Learn what your colleagues are doing across the province. Click FHT Conference Registration Form for more information and to register for the workshop. When: Friday, October 22, 2010 Where: The Festival Inn, 1144 Ontario Street, Stratford, Ontario Fee: $50; $25 for students
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AFHTO Pension proposal needs 27 more FHT responses
One of the top concerns identified by Family Health Teams was the gap between the benefits package available through FHT funding, and that offered elsewhere in the health care system. To help FHTs attract and retain skilled healthcare workers, AFHTO has been working with HOOPP, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to address the pension gap. HOOP has been collecting the data needed to for us to move forward on pension discussions with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. To date 23 FHTs have completed the survey; 27 more are needed in order for the results to be robust for presentation to the Ministry. Results to date were presented at the October 6 AFHTO 2010 conference; the case is beginning to emerge, but data from at least 27 more FHTs are needed to complete the job. Thank you to the FHTs that have already participated. If your FHT would like to do so as well, it will involve a few hours at most of staff time in order to complete the survey. Please email: fht@hoopp.com.
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Safety Engineered Medical Sharps
The Hamilton FHT has developed a memo on the Safety Engineered Medical Sharps (SEMS) that is now legislated for use as of June 2010. Click SEMS Memo – June 2010 to learn more.
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Coming
With the goal of maximizing the purchasing power of FHTs regardless of their size or location, AFHTO established a Commercial Advisory Council (CAC). An AFHTO survey had found that FHTs were interested in accessing a range of quality goods and services at discounted prices and/or with other benefits. CAC’s role has been to develop a fair and transparent process for working with vendors in order to make recommendations to the AFHTO board on establishing contractual arrangements with suppliers of goods and services at discounted rates and/or with other benefits for AFHTO members. As of November 2010, CAC has completed its pilot test of the process with a small number of vendors. Contractual arrangements are now in discussion, and the first vendor recommendations are expected to be ready by January 2011. CAC will then proceed to use the process to vet additional vendor proposals. CAC is chaired by Keri Selkirk, ED of Thames Valley FHT. Members are: Jay Graydon (Business Manager, Hamilton FHT), Fran Moore (Business Manager, North Perth and North Huron FHTs) and Valerie Smith (Executive Director, Barrie and Community FHT). Additional AFHTO members who may be interested in participating in CAC are welcome to send an e-mail to keri.selkirk@thamesvalleyfht.ca.
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Key Issues
AFHTO has served as the forum for sharing FHT issues, concerns, and ideas, and formulating policy statements and recommendations to the government. The November 2009 FHT Leaders Retreat is an excellent example of collective idea-sharing and problem-solving: it achieved remarkable consensus on the most pressing issues for FHT success. The following March AFHTO board members met with the Health Minister’s staff and exchanged correspondence with Minister Deb Matthews. The Minister’s Office welcomes AFHTO as a credible advocacy voice for FHTs and will ensure on-going communications. The Ministry’s Primary Health Care branch has committed to meet regularly. Our August meeting began to deal with our most pressing issues. Coming out of that meeting, we heard the Ministry’s commitment to:
- Explore possible improvements to speed up the process to get FHT budgets approved;
- Work with individual FHTs that are experiencing cash flow problems to flow funds at the beginning of the month, rather than at the end;
- Work with a small group of FHT Executive Directors to find solutions to problems with financial reporting systems. This work is actively in progress;
- Consider the question of funding for travel and education for northern FHTs, in line with what is provided to other northern health organizations;
- Provide an opportunity for AFHTO to comment on an Ontario Telemedicine Network support policy that is in development; and
- Receive a proposal from AFHTO to develop and support FHT governance and strategic planning, and for cost-effective training to meet legislated obligations such as workplace health and safety, for potential project funding.
AFHTO continues to participate in the Ministry’s FHT Action Group, together with representatives from other associations representing the various health professions working within FHTs. This, along with additional contacts by board members with other organizations, has enabled AFHTO to establish and nurture relationships with organizations such as the Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership (QIIP), the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Association of Ontario Health Centres and others.