Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care releases proposal on the future of Ontario health care
Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care has released Patients First: A Proposal to Strengthen Patient-Centred Health Care in Ontario, describing the need to improve several aspects of our health-care system.
As part of this plan, Ontario is releasing this proposal for feedback. It outlines ways to:
- Make it easier for patients to find a primary health care provider when they need one, see that person quickly when they are sick, and find the care they need, closer to home.
- Improve communication and connections between primary health care providers, hospitals and home and community care.
- Ensure the province has the right number of doctors, nurses, and other health care providers, and plan locally to make sure they are available to patients where and when they are needed.
The ministry is looking to health care providers, patients and caregivers around the province to provide feedback on these recommendations.
The Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) has responded to the proposal with their December Pulse on Family Medicine: Primary Care Policy Update.
According to Dr. Stephen Wetmore, Chair/Chief of Family Medicine, "It will be important for family physicians to understand [the prosposal] and to provide feedback to the Ministry. Engagement of family physicians is crucial to changing the system towards better integration and coordination."
