2. Background
Primary care reform was initiated formally in late 90s and early 2000s, for several reasons:
Accessing family doctors was difficult.
Too many people were accessing ERs for non-emergency care.
Funding from the federal government to invest in primary care reform.
In Ontario, 3.5 million patients in over 206 communities are accessing interprofessional comprehensive family care through:
184 Family Health Teams Aboriginal Health Centres
75 Community Health Centres - 25 Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics

3. Comprehensive Family Care
Across the world, cost-effective and high-performing health systems share a common characteristic – they are based on a foundation of comprehensive family health care.
World Health Organization has found that countries with strong primary care systems have healthier populations and more efficient use of resources.
BC study shows that sick patients without access to high quality primary care cost the system $30k per year, whereas similar patients with a comprehensive family care provider cost just $12k per year.
Comprehensive primary care is patient (not disease) focused care over time (not episodic), providing a wide range of timely services and coordination of care when specialized services are needed elsewhere.

4. Comprehensive Care and Family Care Teams
By taking advantage of the different skills of a range of health care professionals, family care teams provide comprehensive care, including:
Focus on disease prevention rather than just on treating illness.
Better management of chronic disease, keeping our sickest patients out of hospital and leading more productive lives.
Innovative health promotion initiatives in order to focus investments on what’s needed most in a community.
Collaboration with other providers to improve access and coordination of care.

5. Family Care Teams Achieve Results
Systematic review of research on Ontario Family Health Teams* concluded this approach to care is resulting in:
Enhanced access to primary care and other health care services.
Improved coordination, collaboration and patient-centredness.
Better clinical outcomes.
Enhanced patient and provider satisfaction.
More system efficiency.
Decreased wait times for primary care, diagnostic testing and mental health assessments.
* Gocan et al, Interprofessional Collaboration in Ontario’s Family Health Teams: A Review of the Literature, Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education, Vol. 3.3, January, 2014.

6. Better Care. Healthier Families. Best Value.
Ontario’s focus on enhancing primary care is showing results. Family care teams have helped:
Care for almost a million patients who didn’t previously have a doctor.
Are providing same day/next day appointments in 95% of cases
Are providing home visits to vulnerable patients in 87% of cases.
... (FHT/NPLC/FHO name) … is making a difference to our community:
…….insert your local examples……..
…..

7. What comes next?
To continue improving outcomes and deliver savings, we are asking all of the political parties to:
Expand access to family care teams to all Ontarians as soon as possible.
Evidence is clear – family care teams save money and provide better care.
3 of 4 Ontarians still do not have access to family care teams.
A plan should be put in place to expand access to all Ontarians.

8. What comes next?
To continue improving outcomes and deliver savings, we are asking all of the political parties to (cont’d):
2. Enhance value by investing in the ability of family care teams to track access, quality and costs, allowing them to do more to improve care.
Value of primary care is to keep people healthy to avoid illness and the need for more expensive care.
Supporting family care teams to enable better tracking of data will mean:
Improved quality of care
Optimize capacity to assure access for more patients.
Reduce the total cost of care for a patient population

9. What comes next?
To continue improving outcomes and deliver savings, we are asking all of the political parties to:
3. Enable recruiting of professionals by ensuring that family care teams are able to compete with hospitals and institutions for the best professionals.
Salary funding for family care teams to hire other providers like Nurse Practitioners and Dietitians haven’t increased since 2009.
These providers are leaving to go work in more lucrative environments like hospitals, CCACs and in long-term care.
Two-thirds of all who leave are lost to the primary care system.
For example, vacancy rate is almost 20% for NP positions
We need increased funding to ensure we can recruit new providers and retain existing ones.