April 15, 2020

An open letter regarding PPE in Primary Care during COVID-19 was released today from the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO), Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario (NPAO) and the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP). On behalf of our members - who are caring for patients in communities across Ontario in the midst of COVID-19 - we are seeking urgent assistance from Ontario's Ministry of Health in ensuring access to appropriate PPE in order to safeguard patient access to primary care.

AFHTO submitted its recommendations to the Ministry of Finance as part of the 2020 Ontario Pre-Budget Consultations in early January. The submission is entitled "It Takes a Team: Interprofessional Primary Care as the Foundation of Health System Transformation."

Our recommendations are the following:

The Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine released its second interim report on June 25, 2019, entitled "A Healthy Ontario: Building a Sustainable Health Care System."

On April 2 AFHTO presented its submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 74: The People’s Health Care Act, 2019. Our key recommendations are:

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: