Chair's Message
It has been a tumultuous year for healthcare in Ontario. The Premier’s Council on “Ending Hallway Healthcare” has now released two reports to help point the way for healthcare reform.
The first report, released in January, identified challenges facing the system including difficult navigation for patients and long wait times, capacity pressures, and the need for more effective communication.
The second report, released today, comes with 10 recommendations on how to move forward. I don’t have room to delineate them all here, but I do want to point out that a key recommendation is to ensure that effective primary care is the foundation of an integrated healthcare system, reflecting strong support for primary care. Now it is time for us to step up and deliver!
Other recommendations in today’s report include the use of virtual care, the use of data to drive accountability and improve health outcomes, more partnerships between health and social services, and strategic new investments.
One key investment recognized by the ministry is the creation of Ontario Health Teams with strong primary care involvement. Indeed there is lots of interest in moving forward with Ontario Health Teams. Over 150 expressions of interest have been received when the government only expected 30 to 40 in the first wave.
Here in London Middlesex, primary care engagement has been strong, and next week will see the first meeting of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners in this region, called to explore governance models, partnerships, and clinical programs with proven potential that could be the basis for better integration and patient outcomes in a revised system.
I am very encouraged by this level of primary care engagement and I feel the energy building for some strong moves in the right direction. I hope you can feel this too.
As this is the last of our newsletters before the summer break, I want to wish you all the best for a restful summer and look forward to lots of primary care activity in the fall.
As always I welcome your feedback at swetmore@uwo.ca or on Twitter @DOCSJW.
