88.7 myFM News published an article on Feb 13, 2025
By Emily Chatwood
More than 13,000 people in Frontenac, Lennox and Addington were connected to a family doctor or nurse practitioner in 2024, surpassing the original goal of 9,000.
The Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT) says this is a major step in closing the gap for thousands who previously had no primary care provider. Before this effort, around 30,000 people—10 per cent of the population—were without one.
The FLA OHT worked with several clinics, including CDK Kingston Health Home, Greenwood Medical Centre and Queens Family Health Team, to attach patients. Special efforts also helped Indigenous community members, pregnant women, and people facing housing or substance use challenges.
FLA OHT says it will keep expanding clinics, called Health Homes, so every resident has a provider. People without one can register with Health Care Connect at 1-800-445-1822 or visit the FLA OHT website.
Highlights of 2024 attachments:
- CDK Kingston Health Home: Attached 4,187 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood.
- Frontenac Doctors: Attached 300 people, including 100 people from Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood and 200 pregnant women and their babies.
- Greenwood Medical Centre: Attached 1,700 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood, and continues to expand its neighbourhood area to include rural communities east of the Cataraqui River. They continue to clear the waitlist on Health Care Connect for their neighbourhood.
- Lakelands Family Health Team: Attached 1,512 people in the rural regions of the OHT.
- Palliative Care Partnerships: Attached 40 people with palliative care needs.
- Queens Family Health Team: Attached 1,500 people primarily through Health Care Connect and other target populations such as unattached pregnant women and newcomers.
- Tsi Kanonhkhwatsheríyo Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Team: Attached 589 Indigenous community members; 109 at its site in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and 480 at its Kingston site.
- Kingston Community Health Centers:
- Greater Napanee Health Home: Attached 2,000 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood, and continues to attach Greater Napanee residents through Health Care Connect.
- Weller Clinic: Attached 354 individuals, including all people registered on Health Care Connect for the Rideau Heights neighbourhood in Kingston. They also provided access to care to an additional 1,454 residents who do not have a primary care provider.
- Midtown Kingston Health Home: This newly established clinic team opened its doors in July 2024 and has attached 1,211 people to primary care providers and provided access to care to an additional 1,450 people in the region who do not have a primary care provider. Midtown Kingston Health Home continues to attach residents through Health Care Connect.
- Street Health Centre: Attached 188 people within their target population of people with substance use concerns, who are unhoused or precariously housed, may have been incarcerated, and/or may be affected by or at risk of acquiring Hepatitis C.
- Well Baby Care Clinic: Helped attach 685 pregnant women and their newborns to ongoing primary care, in addition to providing well-baby care to 182 newborns without primary care providers in 2024.