On Thursday, September 18, 2025, the Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) received an arbitration award for the remaining three years of the 2024-28 Physician Services Agreement (PSA). The agreement increases access to primary care and provides stable funding for staffing across the province, ensuring families can access the care they need, when and where they need it.

Ontario is proud to lead the country with the highest rate of people attached to a primary care provider, the largest health-care workforce and the highest compensation rates for primary care physicians across Canada. To build on this progress, the award includes significant investments to modernize the Family Health Organization (FHO) model to attract and retain more physicians. These investments will also connect more Ontarians to care by incentivizing doctors to take on new patients, supporting the shift of procedures from emergency departments to clinics and strengthening incentives for after-hours care.

In addition to these historic investments in primary care, the OMA and the Ministry of Health have agreed to new funding measures to support in-hospital anesthesia services, support hospital on-call coverage and other initiatives that ensure patients continue to have timely access to hospital and specialist care.

To deliver on its plan to protect the provincial health-care system, the government will continue to work with the OMA to implement the next phase of this agreement which builds on Ontario’s historic investments to connect every person to primary care, the largest expansion of medical education in more than a decade, new programs that pay for school and supplies for family doctors and new community surgical and diagnostic centres.

Quick Facts

The OMA serves as the representative body for Ontario’s physicians, advocating for their well-being, as well as the health of their patients.
In September 2024, the Arbitration Board, issued the Year 1 award which saw investments in physician compensation increase by $1.7 billion dollars.
In April 2025, the Arbitration Board issued a mediated arbitration award that increases funding to expand access to physician services across the province, including expanded services in rural and northern Ontario and stable staffing for emergency departments across the province.

Author: Pete Fisher

Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love