Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews congratulated lead physician Dr. Joseph Lee and the staff of Kitchener's Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team for having enrolled more patients than originally planned, including over 5000 who were previously unattached.  She said, “It’s a shining example of what family health teams are all about.”  The Health Minister used the occasion to announce that Ontario has helped one million more people find a family doctor since 2003.

One of the top concerns identified by Family Health Teams was the gap between the benefits package available through FHT funding, and that offered elsewhere in the health care system.  To help FHTs attract and retain skilled healthcare workers, AFHTO has been working with HOOPP, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to address the pension gap.  HOOP has been collecting the data needed to for us to move forward on pension discussions with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

New Vision Family Health Team is a busy primary care practice in Kitchener, Ontario. On average, outcomes for patients in the practice who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were not meeting clinical best practice guidelines. The team realized it needed to redesign its chronic disease management system to improve care for these patients.

The Athens District Family Health Team (FHT), located within the South East LHIN, serves 3,500 rostered and 300 unrostered patients. In November 2008, the team was experiencing a wait time of 27 days, as measured by the time to the third next available appointment. As a result, the registered nurse had to do telephone triage to fit patients into an already doublebooked schedule or offer telephone advice.

AFHTO has served as the forum for sharing FHT issues, concerns, and ideas, and formulating policy statements and recommendations to the government. The November 2009 FHT Leaders Retreat is an excellent example of collective idea-sharing and problem-solving: it achieved remarkable consensus on the most pressing issues for FHT success. The following March AFHTO board members met with the Health Minister’s staff and exchanged correspondence with Minister Deb Matthews. The Minister’s Office welcomes AFHTO as a credible advocacy voice for FHTs and will ensure on-going communications.