We are pleased to launch the first AFHTO IHP Advisory Council Communique. The Council meets on a quarterly basis to provide input on primary care team matters related to IHPs, give advice to the AFHTO board and staff, and foster leadership across the IHP community. The council’s Terms of Reference and membership listing can be accessed here. Below are highlights from the winter 2023 council meeting.
Market Salary Review & Compensation Working Group
In 2022, multiple associations and organizations came together as the Community Compensation Working Group to jointly support a market survey in order to get a better idea of the wage disparity and compensation challenges across interprofessional primary care, community support services, community mental health and long-term care. The market salary review will be conducted for 78 positions across the primary and community care sectors.
The Working Group has since partnered with Eckler Ltd. to begin this work with an estimated completion by end of spring 2023. Once complete, recommendations will be presented to the government and funders on reasonable, fair, and equitable compensation across the healthcare sector. Our goal is to demonstrate the significant pay gap and wage inequities across the community sector and to compel government to pay healthcare providers and staff the compensation they deserve.
To ensure a successful market study with a substantive sample, Executive Directors are being asked to complete a survey that will accompany the market review. Surveys are targeted to be launched in late February 2023. If you have questions about this market study, please feel free to contact Abisola Otepola at abisola.otepola@afhto.ca.
IHP Roles & Responsibilities
As many of you are aware, members requested updated information on roles and responsibilities of IHPs to aid in the coordination and management of their respective teams. AFHTO is currently validating information that had been provided and is planning to release the information over the coming months.
Following the release of the guidance document, plans are in place to host a webinar series with a focus on individual IHP disciplines/roles. The goal is to have generative discussion around individual roles and responsibilities, challenges, and key enablers using the guidance document as the starting point. This work will be done in partnership with associations and key stakeholders. Preliminary timelines for this will be summer 2023.
FHT and NPLC Contracts
In late January teams received letters from the Ministry of Health with regards to the NPLC and FHT contracts for the upcoming fiscal year. The Ministry intends to transfer the contract management and oversight of the NPLCs to Ontario Health, effective April 1, 2023. All provisions in the NPLC Agreement shall remain in full force and effect.
A separate letter went to FHTs noting the FHT contract has been extended for another year. The FHT contract now expires on March 31, 2024. Although there should be no direct impact to IHPs, we understand there may be questions on the NPLC transition process and what this might mean for the potential of a future transition of the FHT contracts to OH. We’re speaking regularly with MOH and OH and will provide regular updates to our members.
Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care
On Feb 2nd 2023, Health Minister Sylvia Jones launched Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, a plan that sets the vision and direction for Ontario’s health system strategy for the next few years. We were thrilled to see an investment of $30 million to expand or create new teams and help bridge the gap in accessing interprofessional primary care for vulnerable, marginalized, and unattached patients to ensure they are able to connect to care where and when they need it.
AFHTO has been advocating for years around expansion of team-based care and we were pleased to see the first large investment to expand teams in the province in a number of years. The details of what the implementation will look like (new teams or expansion of already existing teams) is still being worked through and we hope to provide you with more information as we continue to dialogue with the Ministry and Ontario Health. To read more about the Your Health plan please click here.
AFHTO Conference
Mark your calendars for October 25, 2023, with pre-conference sessions beginning on October 24th. Now’s the time to start thinking about your submissions for Bright Lights! Stay tuned for more details over the coming weeks.
PCC & AFHTO Pre-Budget Submissions & Local Advocacy
On February 6, 2023 AFHTO submitted our recommendations to the government for their 2023 budget. Our recommendations are broken into four sections:
- Make team-based primary care available to more Ontarians through an investment of an additional $75 million pre year for 10 years (recommendation provided in partnership with the Primary Care Collaborative)
- Address the health human resource (HHR) crisis in primary care through the creation of a primary care HHR table (recommendation provided in partnership with the Primary Care Collaborative)
- Provide mental health and additions services and home and community care in coordination with primary care
- Provide resources to support the implementation of primary care networks (PCNs) and recognize PCNs as the organizing model for primary care.
AFHTO has begun to set up meetings with government bodies to present our recommendations and hopes to begin meeting with officials very soon. Members are encouraged to present the pre-budget submission to their own MPPs if given an opportunity to meet. Please let us know if we can help in your local advocacy efforts!
Connect with your peers using AFHTO’s IHP Directory
IHPs in AFHTO member teams are encouraged to sign up to AFHTO’s IHP Directory! This directory will help improve AFHTO’s communication to IHPs, and it will support IHP networking, information sharing, and collaboration.
After you sign up, you will be emailed a link to a spreadsheet with the names, professions, team names, and work emails of all IHPs who have signed up for open communication. You may sort by profession to see the names of those in the same discipline as you.
AFHTO will be checking the directory and emailing links to new registrants every 1-2 weeks. We look forward to improved communication from AFHTO to IHPs, and across IHPs in AFHTO-member teams!
Ongoing Communication
We hope ongoing communiques will create an opportunity for you to learn and stay involved with what the AFHTO IHP Advisory Council is working on providing to the primary care community and fellow IHP members! Please contact us at any time if you have any questions and please encourage the IHPs in your team to sign up for these communiques.
Leave a Reply