Ontario Investing Over $1.8 Billion to Connect Every Person in Ontario to a Family Doctor and Primary Care Teams

The Ontario government is investing $1.8 billion to connect two million more people to a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team within four years, which will achieve the government’s goal of connecting everyone in the province to a family doctor or primary care team. This investment includes $1.4 billion in new funding, alongside more than $400 million in already-approved funding for primary care.

“Through our government’s record investments in primary care, we have been able to achieve the highest rate of access to regular health care providers in the country,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “With this historic, transformative investment, we can now achieve our goal of connecting every person in the province who wants a primary care provider.”

Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, will use the government’s historic investment to implement its action plan to build a primary care system that draws on best-in-class models from across the province and connects everyone to a family doctor or primary care team. Interprofessional primary care teams are made up of a family physician or nurse practitioner and other health care professionals such as nurses, physician assistants, social workers, dieticians and more.

“Together we will build a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient, and connected for every single person in Ontario,” said Dr. Jane Philpott. “In every community, your primary care team will be your front door to care, where you have a team of clinicians providing care you can access in a timely way, close to home.”

Since 2018, Ontario has added over 15,000 new physicians to its health-care workforce, including a 10 per cent increase in family doctors. Through the Your Health plan, Ontario invested $110 million in primary care teams across the province, helping to connect 328,000 more people to primary care close to home. Ontario has also opened two new medical schools and increased the number of medical school seats to add 260 undergraduate seats and 80 undergraduate seats at York University, as well as 449 postgraduate positions and 102 postgraduate positions at York University.

As a next step, Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan will implement a broad series of initiatives in collaboration with primary care leaders and health system partners that will close the gap for the remaining 10 per cent of people in the province in need of primary care by 2029. Key initiatives include:

Connecting You to a Primary Care Team

• Creating and expanding 305 additional teams to attach approximately two million people to primary care, including more than $235 million in 2025-26 to establish and expand 80 additional primary care teams across the province, attaching 300,000 more people to primary care this year.
• To support this initiative, be the first jurisdiction to introduce legislation that, if passed, would establish best-in-class standards outlining what people in Ontario can expect when accessing primary care services across the province.
• To improve transparency, provide regular public updates on progress and performance tied to this initiative, with reporting on the following metrics:
  • Number of people who have ongoing attachment to primary care.
  • Percentage of primary care providers who work in interdisciplinary teams.
  • Percentage of people who can get an appointment on the same day or next day when needed.
  • Percentage of people who can access their health records online.

Making Primary Care More Connected and Convenient

• Modernize Health Care Connect to improve the user and provider experience with the goal of establishing a wait time target of no more than 12 months to be connected with a primary care team.
• Attach everyone currently on the Health Care Connect waitlist (as of January 1, 2025) to a primary care team by Spring 2026.
• Enhance digital tools for providers and patients, improving patient navigation, reducing administrative burden, modernizing information sharing and improving the referral process. Leverage Health811 to view online health records, book an appointment with a primary care provider and discover care options.
• Set regular performance indicators of primary care teams, including the number of patients attached, to ensure teams reach their maximum impact in connecting people to care.

Supporting Primary Care Providers

• Introduce targeted strategies to recruit and retain the workforce needed to support primary care providers and teams, including family doctors, nurse practitioners and other allied health care professionals. This includes continuing to address administrative burden with digital tools, targeted recruitment and retention strategies for northern and rural communities, and ensuring all of Ontario’s highly qualified health care professionals can work to their full scope of practice.
• Add and expand the number of community-based primary care teaching clinics in collaboration academic institutions and other partners. These new and expanded teaching clinics would support new primary care learners (e.g., physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and registered nurses) in communities across the province, prioritizing underserved communities as new learners often choose to practice where they are.

Closing the Gap

Through the action plan, two million more people will be connected to primary care by 2029.

Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to grow the province’s highly-skilled health care workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care closer to home for generations to come.

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