2018 Ontario Budget – A Plan for Care and Opportunity An overview of the Ontario government budget

Overview Today the Liberal government released their 2018 Ontario Budget entitled “A Plan for Care and Opportunity”.

The Emerging Role of Social Work in Primary Health Care: A Survey of Social Workers in Ontario Family Health Teams

Article published in Health & Social Work (February 2018)

Abstract

Announcing 2018 Call for Proposals ARTIC Implementation and Spread Funding

AFHTO submitted its recommendations to the Ministry of Finance in February 2018, calling on the government to strengthen primary care so that it can deliver on its commitments outlined in the Patients First Act and ensure all Ontarians receive access to high quality, comprehensive, interprofessional team-based primary care.

Key recommendations include:

On Dec. 7, 2016 Ontario's government passed Bill 41: the Patients First Act, 2016. With many changes to the health care system, including the role of LHINs and development of subregions, implementation will likely continue for several years. Please see below for updates relevant to primary care. Updates:

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Association of Ontario Midwives are inviting applications for two new programs that have been introduced with a special focus on access, choice, and addressing health inequities:

This year, AFHTO engaged in a strategic planning exercise that led to the development of a new strategic plan with a new shared vision - High quality, sustainable, team-based primary health care.

To help tackle the growing opioid problem, Health Quality Ontario is developing three sets of quality standards. The first one outlines for patients and clinicians what quality care looks like for adults and adolescents with opioid use disorder and the other two provide guidance on prescribing opioids for the management of chronic and acute pain.