Tools and information to support family physicians through respiratory illness season, opportunities to engage with OCFP, sector updates and more
Updated: October 17, 2025
You may be aware of the provincial government’s recent policy requiring international medical graduates to have attended an accredited Ontario high school for at least two years to be eligible for the first round of residency matching.
Although the OCFP’s primary focus is on supporting family physicians in practice rather than medical education, we recognize how this policy could have downstream effects on the sector.
We are monitoring this issue as it develops to ensure this does not undermine the vital need for a sustainable family medicine workforce. We will continue to keep you informed as this issue evolves.
See below for tools, information and updates to support you in practice.
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OCFP’s Updated Webpage and Tools: To support you through respiratory illness season, we have updated our webpage to include information related to government programs for flu, COVID-19and RSV as well as our tools to support you and your patients, including:
Changing the Way We Work Community of Practice: At each session we provide an update on circulating respiratory illnesses and answer your questions to help you support patients this season. See the recording from today’s session here.
Other Respiratory Season Tools: As a reminder, the Centre for Effective Practice is also sharing tools to support you this season.
Member Focus Groups: OCFP CEO, Deepy Sur, continues to host focus groups to hear from members about how to make practicing better, including the need for a centralized referral system. To join a future focus group, contact Jay Scull, Manager, Communications at jscull@ocfp.on.ca. Participation is compensated.
OCFP’s Annual Award Ceremony: (November 19th, 2025 at 6 p.m.): This year’s virtual event will recognize family physicians from across Ontario who have been nominated by their peers for regional family physician of the year awards as well as awards of excellence. We encourage all interested members to join us to help celebrate your colleagues and our profession. Register here.
Practising Well (October 22nd, 2025 at 8 a.m.): Register for our next session to learn the mechanics of authorizing cannabis, the evidence behind using cannabis for different medical conditions and resources available for family physicians.
Health Equity Community of Practice (November 27th, 2025 at 12 p.m.): Register for our next session, to learn about how you can support the health of newly arrived refugees.
Earn MainPro+ credits by watching our most recent session focused on Equity-oriented Primary Care Attachment and completing the evaluation. Learn more.
Harmonized Disability Form: To help reduce administrative burden, OCFP and our partners have been working closely with the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) to improve and standardize forms required for patients to access benefits. Earlier this month, CLHIA introduced one harmonized medical form (Initial Disability Insurance Medical Statement) to initiate disability claims. Read more.
As insurers add the new form across all their websites for plan sponsors, patients who have benefits can access the new medical form on the CLHIA website or on their insurer’s website. CLHIA is also exploring how these forms can be embedded into your EMRs, and we will keep you posted on those developments.
Arbitration: The OMA recently hosted a webinar to share information about the arbitration award. The recording is available.
FHO+ Webinar (November 11th, 2025 at 6 p.m.): SGFP has scheduled a webinar to help family physicians navigate billing under FHO+. This webinar will equip you with the insights needed to optimize your billing and ensure compliance. Register here. OMA is also sharing additional tools:
Canada Post Service Disruption: The Canada Post labour disruption impacts key cancer screening program activities, including correspondence letters and the mailing/return of ColonCancerCheck (CCC) fecal immunochemical test (FIT) kits. More information is available here.
Visit our website for opportunities specifically for family physicians to participate in research, surveys, conferences and more.
