News

Supporting Family Doctors

The OCFP recognizes and thanks all family doctors for the extent to which you have stretched your care and resources to support patients across the province during this current crisis which is particularly impacting children. Throughout the pandemic, you have continued to go above and beyond to support Ontarians.

On November 21, 2022, our colleagues who work in interprofessional care teams received a memo from the Primary Health Care Branch at the Ministry of Health as a result of the number of current respiratory cases and the impact across the health system. The memo acknowledges the important role of primary care and calls for an offering of ‘clinical services 7 days a week, including evening availability, until further notice.’

OCFP has worked with partners and stakeholders, including AFHTO, to confirm that this memo is not intended to be a directive as it relates to interprofessional care teams.

We are sharing this helpful statement from AFHTO which clarifies details in the Ministry’s memo.

To help Ontarians, the OCFP is in the process of developing and updating tools and resources for both family doctors and patients. Please see the current tools, including a patient script and a tip sheet for parents.

The Ministry’s memo is a reminder that Ontario’s entire health system continues to be under immense strain, and this includes family medicine. This is coming at a time when family doctors are already struggling with a backlog in care and managing many more complex cases following more than two years of the pandemic.We know that family doctors are doing their best to support Ontarians right now. We thank you for your continued dedication to patients during this challenging time.