Re: Ontario plans health-care overhaul -- sorely needed!

On November 24, 2015, The Globe and Mail published an article Ontario plans to target home care in overhaul of health care system. In response, AFHTO together with the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) sent a joint letter to the editor:

Letter to the Globe and Mail Editor, sent November 24, 2015: Research from around the world shows that cost-effective and high-performing health systems are based on a strong foundation of comprehensive primary care.

We have the building blocks. One-quarter of Ontarians now receive care from primary care teams – family health teams, nurse practitioner-led clinics, community health centres and aboriginal health access centres. Teams wrap care around each person throughout their lifetime.

We need to take the next step -- expand primary care teams for all, and give teams the tools to fully coordinate care for their patients so we can reduce the duplication and role conflict that currently exists.

Net result? Better care, healthier people, best value.

The article states, “The Ontario government is preparing to overhaul health care in the province, including scrapping its troubled system for delivering home care and reforming primary care with the aim of improving patient access.” Improving access to and quality of care for patients requires effective care coordination led by a person’s primary care team throughout his or her lifetime. This reduces duplication, facilitates access and ensures continuity of care regardless of setting, be it care in the home, community, hospital or long-term care facility. As we work together to improve our health system, AFHTO joins with its colleagues on the Ontario Primary Care Council to call on government and others in Ontario’s health system to ensure primary care is supported to fulfill this central role in coordinating care. Click to read the Ontario Primary Care Council’s Position Statement on Care Coordination in Primary Care.