Family Health Teams from Wave 4 are beginning to move into the "fully operational" stage of their development.  Health Minister Deb Matthews visited Wise Elephant FHT in Brampton to celebrate its opening with lead physician Dr. Sanjeev Goel and staff.  One of Dr. Goel's long-time patients enthused about how the practice has grown into a "one-stop shop" for meeting his health care needs. “The Wise Elephant Downtown Brampton Family Health Team will be able to provide increased access to care for over 9,000 people within the next five months.

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.

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.