Toward the next Ministry contract: results from the leadership survey and session

The results of the first phase in our collective journey toward the next Ministry contract has been e-mailed to all AFHTO member Board Chairs, Lead MD/NPs and EDs of AFHTO member organizations. New contracts will come into force for FHTs on April 1, 2016; their content could influence Ministry-NPLC contracts as well. Click here to review the principles and guidance for moving forward. As described in a September 10 e-mail, the objective at this stage has been to develop a common statement of principles and set of agreed priorities to guide AFHTO’s work toward the new contract template. This has been done through a survey of our FHT and NPLC leaders (115 responses) and the leadership session held immediately before the AFHTO conference (over 180 participants). From this process, strong support has emerged for a clear set of principles for:

• Governance of primary care organizations
• Accountability and reporting to funders
• Determining accountability measures

In addition, the process has revealed priority needs to help strengthen team collaboration and move toward accountability for agreed upon outcome measures. AFHTO members also reported their hopes and concerns as we go through this journey. Overall, AFHTO members have indicated they want to be accountable for achieving meaningful outcomes.  They are hopeful this will provide clear evidence of the value their organizations deliver, and as a result, will lead to improvements in the funding relationship with the ministry as well as greater efficiency in reporting. Members have urged caution in choosing measures, to ensure they meet the stated principles (e.g. evidence-based, clinically important, aligned with other priorities, easy-to-track on an on-going basis, able to reflect variation in teams and complexity of populations). The ministry must collaborate to define these measures, and AFHTO members must have the opportunity to engage in this process. There is indisputable need for sufficient support so that FHTs and NPLCs have the capacity to collect and report their data. Please review the report (in your e-mail) for full details on the conclusions that have been drawn and the membership response that led to these conclusions. The principles and priorities are also posted on the AFHTO members-only website (log-in required). With this clear direction from the leaders of AFHTO member-organizations, the AFHTO board will continue to guide this journey toward the next ministry contract and advance meaningful, manageable measurement. Along the way, ongoing advice from various membership councils and consultations with the broad AFHTO membership will continue. Thank you to all who participated in the survey and in the leadership session. Comments are welcome at any time – please send to info@afhto.ca.