By October 2022, Jane Philpott, an eminently qualified former federal health minister, was sworn in to establish and lead Ontario’s first-ever primary-care czar. She moved into this role after previously being the dean of Queen’s University’s school of medicine. Since then, she has tackled the critical shortage of family doctors in the province. Her mission is to improve access to high-quality primary healthcare for all.
Her unofficial term started during the third week of October, when she finally had her first meeting scheduled with Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford. Shortly thereafter, she was tasked with a significant challenge: to devise a comprehensive plan within 100 days to enhance primary care across Ontario. The provincial government was fully behind this mandate. They announced $4.25 million in funding to support increasing the family doctor roster by roughly 9,500 new patients by next summer.
At a recent primary-care conference, that announcement was a game changer. She announced that 85 percent of registrants in newly formed primary-care teams have attached patients, a major victory in her campaign to link Ontarians with medical professionals. Her more ambitious target is to match two million more people with family doctors or nurse practitioners. These healthcare providers will work in much cooperation with allied healthcare providers.
As of that date, March 31, Dr. Philpott said, 2,015,464 Ontarians were still without a family physician or nurse practitioner. The ongoing crisis only makes this imperative more urgent. In reply, Dr. Philpott is fully engaged to work with Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), as per her strategic plan.
Dr. Philpott’s team received funding through the Primary Care Attach Team (PCAT) funding. This new pilot initiative aims to reshape the patient attachment process across the province. One major piece of her strategy is to eliminate the Health Care Connect list, which currently has 235,000 names on it, by spring 2026. Yet as many OHTs have pointed out their skepticism in achieving this deadline, it just goes to show that the struggles continue to exist within our healthcare landscape.
The Ontario government has shown tremendous leadership by making these deeply needed investments in primary care, Ema Popovic continued. She pointed to the government’s efforts to establish a solid foundation of its publicly financed primary-care system. To that end, our government is thrilled to be the first Canadian jurisdiction to pass government legislation that creates an accountability framework that outlines expectations for its province’s publicly funded primary care system.
Dr. Philpott’s approach to reforming healthcare accessibility involves hands-on engagement with local practices. She stated her intention to personally reach out to family doctors across the province:
“I’m getting in my car, I’m going on Google, I’m going to find the names of every family doctor, and I’m going to show up with doughnuts and coffee, and I’m going to say, ‘What can I do to help you so that you could take care of more people?’” – Dr. Jane Philpott
Always a step ahead, this thoughtful outreach signals her desire to stay in the know about how to best serve the interests of providers and patients alike.
Noah Ivers remarked on the importance of transparency in the allocation of resources:
“It makes it seem as though there’s something to hide, but I’m not sure there is,” – Noah Ivers
While he acknowledged that challenges persist, he pointed out that many healthcare professionals are dedicated to serving their communities.
As Kitty Liu of ECA pointed out, it’s not common for community members to be approached and evangelized to, “Do you want to be our patient? She added that this is indicative of a larger, nationwide movement away from the one-size-fits-all primary-care model.
Kimberley Floyd added further insight into how these investments are reshaping care delivery:
“That’s the difference with these primary-care investments,” – Kimberley Floyd
She elaborated on the collaborative model being established through these initiatives:
“It’s not a referral. It’s, ‘I know that a mental-health worker is in my practice on a regular basis and is now part of my team.’” – Kimberley Floyd
Insights gathered from practitioners underscore that both proactive communication and data transparency have proven vital to gauging progress. Lori Brady commented on the change in expectations from health authorities:
“We’re being asked to meet monthly. That’s never been the case. We’re being asked to share data around how we’re doing and how we’re progressing.” – Lori Brady
Dr. Philpott’s efforts have evoked a fierce backlash and sparked significant interest and concern from the medical community. Rick Glazier expressed his surprise at the scale of initiatives being implemented:
“I just about fell off my chair when I heard this was happening,” – Rick Glazier
As Dr. Philpott continues her work as Ontario’s primary-care czar, she faces both opportunities and obstacles in her quest to transform the province’s healthcare landscape. The combination of these new, creative solutions with proven, more traditional models of care embodies a hopeful turning point for Ontario’s health system.
