Quinte News published an article on February 8, 2024
By Zach McGibbon
Ontario has announced new funding for the Trent Hills Family Health Team to help expand their services.
THFHT will be receiving $221,933 to help service unattached patients in the area.
It’s part of an overall $110 million investment by the provincial government to primary care teams across Ontario.
“The investment into Trent Hills Family Health Team is just a step in the right direction to having all rural Ontario connected with a primary care provider,” Northumberland–Peterborough South MPP David Piccini said in a release.
“The Ontario Government realizes that Family Health Teams play a critical role in transforming the way communities access health care and I am proud that Trent Hills is a part of this expansion.”
Speaking with Quinte News, Piccini explained how the team was selected for funding.
“Well, we’re rural, we have a high number of seniors with a high number of needs. They made a very strong case, and this money will help fund bringing on new health care professionals,” Piccini tells Quinte News.
“Why I say that it’s about team based care. So you may need a dietician, you may have a son or daughter who needs mental health supports, you may need a doctor, a nurse, etc. They’ve all got it here at this health team.”
The Trent Hills Family Health Team itself has been funded by Ontario’s Ministry of Health since 2005 during the first wave of Ontario family health teams. They’ve been a partner of Ontario Health Northumberland since 2019.
Nurse Practitioner Samantha Dalby, who’s been with the team since 2007, welcomes the funding to help the team.
She explained where that funding is going,
“So the funding is directly going to be for human resources,” Dalby explained to Quinte News.
“So nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and in our model of care, we signed patients up to nurse practitioners. So the nurse practitioner is the primary care provider and so when we add new nurse practitioners to our team, we’ll be signing up more patients.”
Dalby says it is still to be determined if the funding will help address all of the needs of the community.
“Can we meet the needs of all of the community through this expansion funding? I’m not sure about that yet,” Dalby said.
“We do have a lot of unattached people out here in the county and we’re very far away from other primary care providers that would pick up patients. But the MPP is committed to working with us for ongoing funding, not just the expansion funding, so I’m just optimistic.”
In total, the health team serves over 11,480 patients in the region.