Advocacy
Strengthening Primary Care in Ontario
Family Physicians: Caring for Ontarians, For Life
Family physicians are the foundation of Ontario’s health care system, supporting patients through every stage of life. And yet, family physicians continue to face challenges in the healthcare system, such as a lack of resources and team support for caring for patients and overwhelming administrative tasks.
The OCFP is calling for additional government investments to support family physicians – and ensure every Ontarian has access to one.
The Solutions
Family physicians want to focus even more on what matters most – their patients. Here’s how we can help make that happen:
Enable Family Physicians to Focus on Patients, Not Paperwork
- Prioritize a centralized referral system to reduce patient wait times for specialized care, and administrative burden for family physicians.
- Bring the benefit of AI scribes to all family physicians and continue to leverage AI to free up their time for direct patient care.
Ensure Access to Primary Care Teams for All Ontarians
- Expand interprofessional primary care teams in high-need areas, targeting unattached patients, family physicians (regardless of the model they work in) and their patients with no/limited access to team-based care, and underserved populations.
- Ensure family physicians are fairly remunerated to reflect the complexity of care they provide, improving retention and encouraging new graduates to enter family medicine. Compensation has not kept pace with inflation and family physicians are facing rising costs in their clinics.
- Address the wage gap in the primary care sector to ensure primary care teams, anchored by family physicians, have the health care professionals needed to fully support patients.
Build a System That Supports Better, Connected Care
- OCFP is ready to work with the government’s new Primary Care Action Team, chaired by Dr. Jane Philpott, to help lead change with family physicians.
- Fund and expand Family Medicine Teaching Units (FMTUs) to train new family physicians and connect more unattached patients to primary care.
- Create a provincial immunization registry to improve access to records for patients and those immunizing them, and to reduce unnecessary administrative burden.
- Create a Rural Coordination Centre for Northern Ontario to support workforce, education, recruitment, and retention needs in the North, with a goal to expand to rural areas provincewide.
Ready to Partner for a Healthier Ontario
The Ontario College of Family Physicians is ready to partner with government and healthcare leaders to continue taking steps to prioritize patient care by increasing access to family physicians. By reducing unnecessary red tape and ensuring family physicians have the right supports to stay focused on patients, Ontario can retain the family physicians we have now, and recruit for the future.
Family doctors are there for Ontarians when their health changes – from pregnancy to mental health challenges, caring for aging parents, or managing chronic illnesses. They are dedicated to ensuring patients get the care they need, when they need it. See our campaign to highlight the essential role of family physicians in Ontario.
Media Headlines
The OCFP continues to raise the issues facing family physicians in media, across Ontario.