Collaboration Key to Quality Health Care, Not Competition: Ontario's Doctors

Toronto, ON – Just a week after committing to help 500,000 patients find a family doctor, the Ontario government is moving forward with an initiative that diverts resources away from achieving this goal, Ontario’s doctor’s say.

“At a time when financial resources are stretched thin and there is a shortage of nurses it would seem more appropriate to open additional collaborative care teams that we know are having a positive impact on patients,” said Dr. Ken Arnold, President of the Ontario Medical Association and family physician in Thunder Bay.  “The Ontario government committed to open 50 additional Family Health Teams and Ontario’s doctors are calling on the government to deliver on their promise.” 

Over the past four years, collaborative care models have helped physicians provide care to over 630,000 patients who previously did not have a family doctor.  The implementation of Family Health Teams has been tremendously successful in Ontario. 

The Kingston Family Health Team currently provides care to 22,500 patients and will soon serve an additional 6,000. In North Bay, the Blue Sky Family Health Team serves some 30,000 patients, up from 18,000 when it was established in 2005, and the Hawkesbury Family Health Group cares for some 18,000 high-need patients.  By way of comparison, the Sudbury Nurse Practitioner Clinic has only taken on 1,900 patients since opening in August 2007.

All health care professionals have an important role to play, which is why Ontario’s doctors have long advocated for collaborative health care teams where various health professionals work together under one roof to provide care to a large number of patients.  It is puzzling why the government would press ahead with an unproven and untested model such as independent lead nurse practitioner clinics rather than effective and efficient collaborative care models.

“If the government is going to open more independent nurse practitioner clinics then they have a responsibility to demonstrate to taxpayers that these clinics are delivering on the outcomes that patients expect.  To date they have not done that,” added Dr. Arnold.  “As a family physician I know first hand that if there were another nurse or nurse practitioner in my office it would enable me to provide more patients with more care.  I have spoken with a number of my colleagues and they couldn’t agree more.”

Also see: Backgrounder- What are health professionals working together in Family Health Teams saying?

For further information: OMA Media Relations at (416) 340-2862 or toll-free at 1-800-268-7215 ext. 2862