Ontario Invests in Expanding and Enhancing Interprofessional Primary Care

As part of the 2017 Budget, Ontario new investments in interprofessional care.  Ontario is investing $248.4 million over the next three years to support expansion of interprofessional primary care models such as Family Health Teams, Community Health Centres, Nurse Practitioner Led Clinics and Aboriginal Health Centres.  

There are currently 294 interprofessional care teams across Ontario.  These health care teams bring together a diverse group of health care professionals to help meet the individual and often complex needs of patients and can include doctors, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, physician assistants, dietitians, pharmacists, occupational therapists, mental health workers, social workers, psychologists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and other professionals.

Announced investments will include;

  • $145 million will support existing teams, enabling more competitive strategies for recruiting new staff and retaining current health care workers 

  • $102 million will be invested to enhance care teams across the province with $15 million invested in 2017/18 to increase the number of teams so that each of the 76 LHIN sub regions in Ontario has at least one team

For more information see:

 

Implications for Occupational Therapists

Occupational therapists play important roles in primary care teams in Ontario.  A growing number of occupational therapists are engaged in Family Health Teams and Community Health Centres.  

OTs working in interprofessional teams will be interested to monitor the commitments to enhanced resources for teams to address compensation parity with other health system sectors.  OSOT will continue to link with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, the Association of Ontario Health Centres and the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario to continue the advocacy to see the promised investments in this area.

The proposed enhancement/expansion of interprofessional primary care models will be of interest to occupational therapists and the profession.  Members are advised to view resources above to seek locations of existing teams who may need access to OT services and to watch for developments in LHIN sub regions where no interprofessional resources exist to support primary care physicians.  This can be an important opportunity to promote the profession's contributions.

Members are encouraged to link with OSOT, to review the Primary Care Practice Resource pages of the website and to consider linkage with OSOT's Primary Health Care Team.