Taking action on family medicine
Supporting our members in family medicine
We formed the Primary Care Action Group (PCAG) of physician leaders and experts in family medicine to engage with Dr. Jane Philpott and her Primary Care Acton Team (PCAT) as they develop and implement the province’s Primary Care Action Plan.
Family doctors are the foundation of Ontario’s health-care system, yet the field is under strain. Doctors are overwhelmed, choosing other specialties or leaving the practice altogether. Within a year, it’s expected that more than 4.4 million Ontarians will be without a family doctor. Without urgent action, access to primary care will continue to decline, putting more patients and the entire system at risk.
In January 2025, the Ontario government announced $1.8 billion in funding to attach two million more people to primary care within four years. Since the initial funding announcement, and as part of its Primary Care Action Plan, the government has also:
- Issued a call for proposals on team-based care for areas with low patient attachment
- Passed the Primary Care Act legislation
- Announced plans to build or expand 17 community-based primary care clinics
- Expanded the Learn and Stay grant
We continue to actively advocate with government to support our members in family medicine. We formed the Primary Care Action Group (PCAG) of physician leaders and experts in family medicine to engage with Dr. Jane Philpott and her Primary Care Acton Team (PCAT) as they develop and implement the province’s Primary Care Action Plan. PCAG includes representatives from NTF, the Physician Services Committee, the Section on General and Family Practice, as well as the bilateral Physician Leadership and Engagement Table.
We are also working closely with our system partners including the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health at our established and collaborative tables and committees such as the Physician Leadership and Engagement Table (PLET) and Digital Health Advisory Table (DHAT) to influence and inform initiatives under PCAT.
Doctors at the core of team-based care
PCAT’s mandate is to attach all Ontarians to a family doctor or nurse practitioner where they can receive ongoing, comprehensive and convenient care. There are, however, challenges with PCAT’s approach and the current team-based models such as Family Health Teams (FHTs) which do not support a physician’s capacity to attach more patients.
FHTs were initially designed to improve quality of care by providing patients with access to allied health professionals. Doctors in a FHT, however, lack decision-making power to direct core team members to help with administrative and clinical tasks. With no ability to shift their administrative and clinical burden, they are unable to accept more patients and meet attachment goals.
To address these gaps, we recommend building teams that have the objective of supporting physicians to attach more patients. This can be achieved in two ways:
- Building and unlocking funds to support physicians in attaching more patients (i.e., core team)
- Modifying the FHT model with the objective of enabling physicians to direct resources to expand their capacity to attach patients with timely access to care
A core team can include nurses (RNs/RPNs), physician assistants (PAs) and/or practice support who directly support physicians by helping them with clinical and administrative tasks. With a core team, physicians can direct and use resources based on their practice needs and attachment goals and relieve some of the administrative burden they face.
The road ahead
As we look towards the next and future rounds of funding, we are strongly advocating to the government and PCAT for funding options that would provide physicians with the necessary supports they need to extend their capacity to attach patients. Doctors in all practice models, as well as different levels of size and organizational sophistication, should be supported in order to attach more patients with timely access to care.
While this work is fundamental to helping to solve key issues like administrative burden, as well as recruitment and retention and build a more sustainable health-care system, it’s just one part of the work we are doing to help all family physicians — including through our advocacy with government, at bilateral tables and through negotiations.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to take action on issues facing family medicine.