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Winter Highlights 2021: AFHTO Leadership Council

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The AFHTO Leadership Council met on February 4, 2021. Below are the highlights from the winter 2021 council meeting; updates on last week’s meeting with officials at the Ministry of Health; and links to useful resources.

AFHTO review

  • Highlights of the work that is keeping AFHTO busy were shared with the council, including COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, OHT development, the pre-budget submission, and quality improvement work. Updates on vaccination roll-out and OHT development are later in the communique.
  • The pre-budget submission is underway in collaboration with the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the OMA’s Section on General and Family Practice, and the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario.
    • Together, we are recommending expansion of team-based primary care; embedding mental health and addiction and home and community care services in primary care; and strengthening virtual care foundations in primary care.
    • The submission will be posted on AFHTO’s site next week, after it has been submitted.
  • An update on the work of AFHTO’s Quality & Knowledge Translation Program was provided to the council and can be read here.
  • Dr. Rob Annis, a member of AFHTO’s board of directors, spoke to governance structure changes that are underway at the Ontario Medical Association. New board members could help drive leadership and change in primary care. Member leaders are encouraged to apply, and physicians are encouraged to vote for primary care representation. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, February 9, and voting is March 23 to April 13. Anyone with questions can contact Dr. Annis.

COVID-19 vaccination roll-out

  • Leadership council members received an update from Dr. Daniel Warshafsky (Senior Medical Consultant, Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Ministry of Health) and Nadia Surani (Director, Primary Health Care Branch) on the provincial approach to vaccination roll-out.  AFHTO is regularly speaking with the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force regarding the role of primary care in vaccine roll-out – in stage 2, but particularly in stage 3 when the general population will be vaccinated.
  • Work is being done to ensure primary care is a pillar in the planning. The pivot of primary care to go into mass vaccination clinics will be part of the planning.
  • As vaccine planning happens across the province, a reminder that PHUs are in charge of the planning and are to engage with primary care. Primary care will determine clinical priorities and will need to decide if there is capacity to support initiatives like mass immunization campaigns. Please connect with your PHU to ensure that they are sharing their vaccine roll-out plans, and share your plans with us.
  • Teams are reminded that they can access the provincial Pandemic PPE Transitional Support stockpile through the remedy system (even if you have more than 7 days of stock you can still access this supply). Ignore the question that asks if you have connected with your supplier first.  
  • A detailed update was circulated on Saturday, February 6, and can be read here.

OHT development

Triad survey: Primary care priorities

  • Thank you to triad members who completed a survey that was circulated prior to the leadership council meeting to help AFHTO frame priorities moving forward. Feedback is still welcome.
  • The survey was one question: “In your role as ED, board chair, or lead physician, what do you think is the biggest opportunity for primary care teams to focus on over the next 3 to 6 months?” The following were shared as top priorities and discussed with the council:
    • COVID-19 vaccination roll-out
    • Mental health and addiction challenges and needed support
    • Advancing OHT work
    • Maximizing utility of virtual care
    • Spreading access to team-based programs and services
    • Getting back on track
  • AFHTO will continue to focus on supporting teams in these areas.

Meeting with the Primary Health Care Branch, Ministry of Health
AFHTO met with officials from the Ministry of Health’s Primary Health Care Branch on Thursday, February 4, following the leadership council meeting. Here are the highlights of the meeting with the ministry:

  • Mental health and addiction funding letters
    • The letters are in the final stage of approval and, once signed, the Ministry will be sending them out to all interprofessional teams.
    • All FHTs will receive a minimum of $5,000, with a top-up based on roster size. Teams can choose to pool this funding within regions to target areas in greatest need.
    • At the moment, the expectation will be to utilize the funds by fiscal year end, but a parallel stream of work is happening at the Ministry to enable the funding to be carried into next fiscal year. This is still to be determined.
  • Annual Operating Plans and funding support:
    • About 60% of teams submitted their Annual Operating Plans for FY 2020/2021, which the Ministry is currently reviewing in tandem with AOPs submitted in FY 2019/2020. A reminder that you do not have to mention all the COVID-related clinics you are doing as those are one-time events.
    • The Ministry recognizes that program and service delivery targets may be affected as a direct result of COVID. Teams will not be penalized if programs and services are not delivered as planned and should continue to balance urgent/high need service provision with the need to support COVID testing/assessment centres and vaccination roll out.
    • Timelines for AOPs for FY 2021/2022 has not yet been determined.  
    • Although there is not a pool of operational funding to support teams right now, the Ministry continues to ask teams to keep track of COVID-related expenses to enable advocacy for more funding if needed in the next fiscal year (ex. upgrades of IT for virtual care, licenses for virtual care modalities, IPAC in your teams). As we will be entering into a new political cycle, we are hopeful it may create opportunities for further investment in primary care. Teams are advised to start thinking about other increased budgetary demands, such as rent increases, so we can begin advocacy efforts accordingly.
    • Though budget funding requests typically are only reviewed during the AOP submissions, teams are still able to make unsolicited in-year funding requests through their ministry program consultant, although there is no guarantee that those requests will be met.
  • FHT contract:
    • The FHT contract is expiring in March 2022. Although we have had preliminary discussions with the Ministry on opportunities to modernize the contracts, we expect that there will be at least a one-year extension to the current contract due to the impacts of COVID. We will keep members updated as we learn more.
  • Pandemic pay:
    • We have heard that some primary care staff redeployed to an assessment centre run by hospitals still have not received their pandemic pay. The Ministry confirmed that hospitals have been reimbursed for March and April expenses and are still working on the subsequent months’ reimbursement, so this may be creating delays. If you are still having issues in accessing pandemic pay for your staff, please let us know.

Supply Ontario survey

  • The government recently established Supply Ontario, a single integrated supply chain across the public sector that will leverage the province’s purchasing power to provide greater value and consistent access to high-quality products and services. They are asking for input to help identify where there may be opportunities to improve the value that the agency can deliver for your organization and patients, through better supply chain processes.
  • Please take a moment to fill out this survey by Wednesday, February 24.    

Webcasts and other supports

And, finally, for new members of the council who may not have access to the members only section of the website – or any member who may not have signed up for it! – you can set up your log-in here:

  • Click on ‘Member Login’ in the top right corner of AFHTO’s homepage
  • Go to “Create New Account” and follow the steps
  • All individuals are verified as members by AFHTO staff and then permission is granted.
  • If your email address does not show the team where you work, members are encouraged to send a quick email to info@afhto.ca to share this information after creating the account. This helps ensure permission is quickly granted.

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