The province of Ontario is providing an additional $220,000 to improve primary care at the Trent Hills Family Health Team in Campbellford, Ont.
On Thursday, Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini announced $221,933 for the primary care team, which currently provides care to more than 11,480 patients at three sites across the Municipality of Trent Hills, southeast of Peterborough. The funds helped connect Trent Hills with another nurse practitioner, Piccini said.
The annoucement is part of last week’s $110 million in funding announced by Deputy Premier and Health Minister Sylvia Jones. The money aims to connect more than 300,000 people to primary care teams. The Peterborough Family Health Team received $3 million for the creation of a community health centre.
“This investment into Trent Hills Family Health Team is just a step in the right direction to having all rural Ontario connected with a primary care provider,” Piccini said. “The Ontario Government realizes that Family Health Teams play a critical role in transforming the way communities access health care and I am proud that Trent Hills is a part of this expansion.”
Due to a lack of physicians, the Trent Hills Family Health Team formed an interdisciplinary (or interprofessional) team that currently has six physicians, 10 registered nurses and registered practical nurses, five nurse practitioners, four mental health services coordinators, a health promoter and team of administrative staff to serve residents who do not have a health care provider.
“It’s a huge change,” said nurse practitioner consultant Samantha Dalby. “In the last two years, we have gone from nurse practitioners who work seeing other providers’ patients for them to having our own practices. There becomes a lot of responsibility for that but it’s a really rewarding experience.”
Family Health Team executive director Delayne Donald says it is “very pleased” it was chosen for expansion. The new and expanded primary care teams were the result of a provincewide call for proposals in 2023.
“We were committed to including the proper data and statistics in our proposal that showed not only the need for primary care in our community but also our capacity to connect unattached patients to a primary care provider moving forward,” Donald said.
Dr. Paul Williams, medical director, said connecting patients to a primary care provider is “essential” to the health of the community.
“Attaching people to a physician or nurse practitioner is the best way to deliver thorough care and to decrease the load on urgent and emergency care which are operating well over capacity,” Williams said. “We’re very pleased the Ministry regards us as a team and a community to invest in.”
Piccini said Ontario currently leads Canada with 90 per cent of people connected to a regular health care provider. Interprofessional primary care teams are being viewed as a key step to close the gap for those not connected to primary care in his riding.
“This is a community also in rural Ontario with a lot of unattached patients so that’s who we are targeting,” he said. “Getting those people into team-based care so they can get the wraparound supports they need.”
In a statement, Jones said the “record investments” are helping people access primary care.
“Our government is making record investments to ensure that everyone that wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one,” Jones said. “While there is more work to do, giving hundreds of thousands of more Ontarians the opportunity to connect to primary care brings us that much closer to this goal.”
Dalby echoed Jones’ sentiment that more work is still required.
“We have one of the highest build rates in all of Northumerland County right here in Trent Hills,” she said. “So all of those people need healthcare.”
Piccini said the province also continues efforts to attract more physicians to the the province and his riding.
“We’re done learn-and-stay grants which is designed to support people through their learning journey and paying tuition,” he said.
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