Ontario Creating New Provincewide Primary Care Medical Record System

The Ontario government is taking the next steps to deliver its Primary Care Action Plan, which is on track to connect everyone in the province to a family doctor or primary care provider by 2029. As part of its plan, Ontario is advancing a new provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system that will integrate patient records, reduce paperwork for doctors and improve the quality of care received by patients. Through the 2026 Budget, the province is also increasing overall funding for the plan to a total of $3.4 billion between 2025 and 2029.

“Through our Primary Care Action Plan, we are connecting more people to care and have already exceeded our 2025-26 attachment target,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By launching a provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system, we are making care more connected and convenient so patients don’t have to repeat their medical history and clinicians can focus on providing excellent patient care, instead of unnecessary paperwork.”

The province also announced today that it has exceeded its 2025-2026 attachment goal under the Primary Care Action Plan, which was to connect 300,000 patients to a primary care provider by March 31, 2026. As of January 1, 2026, the province has already attached 330,000 people to care in 2025-2026, surpassing its goal by more than 30,000 with three months still to go.

Finally, the province announced that 124 successful applicants have been selected to launch a new or expanded primary care team as part of the latest call for proposals under the Primary Care Action Plan. These teams are expected to connect another 500,000 patients to primary care across Ontario, with successful applicants to be announced in the coming weeks. Each team established a plan to attach a high proportion of unattached people in their community, including those on the Health Care Connect waitlist.

“Building a modern, connected primary care system is essential to improving the health of Ontarians,” said Dr. Jane Philpott, Chair of the Primary Care Action Team. “We are adding clinical capacity with more funding for team-based care. Now we are adding the Primary Care Medical Record system which will give clinicians the tools they need to deliver more coordinated, patient centred care, while reducing administrative burden and improving outcomes.”

Electronic medical records are secure digital versions of patients’ medical charts that allow primary care clinicians to capture and access medical histories, diagnoses, medications, test results and more. While approximately 90 per cent of Ontario family physicians use electronic medical records, the current system is fragmented, disconnected and unable to support effective information sharing. This means that when patients move between health-care providers, they are often forced to repeat their health history to different clinicians and pay fees that can range into the hundreds of dollars to transfer their files or undergo costly and unnecessary repeat medical testing.

The proposed provincewide Primary Care Medical Record system will be an interoperable, secure system, accessible from across Ontario that will provide clinicians with a more complete view of a patient’s health history, improving coordination across the health system while reducing delays caused by missing records. For patients, this means more seamless care and hundreds of dollars in savings on fees required to transfer medical records between doctors, as well as improved medical record security. The new system will allow clinicians to quickly and securely access patients’ medical history (with patient consent), so they can have rapid access to the information they need to provide the best possible care. Family physicians will be able to choose to transition to the new system and the government is exploring options to support related costs of family physicians who choose to take part.

To support the rollout of this system, the province will begin an open competitive procurement process to establish a Vendor of Record arrangement. The market sounding announcement is available today via the Ontario Tenders Portal. The Ministry of Health is partnering with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board on this initiative, recognizing that access to a regular primary care provider plays a crucial role in keeping workers healthy and helping injured workers get back on the job faster.

“When injured workers cannot access care quickly, it can delay recovery, create stress for families and keep people out of the workforce longer than necessary,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “That is why our government is supporting smarter, more connected care and helping workers access timely care, reducing delays, and supporting a safe return to work.”

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.

“Our government will continue to support a health-care system that is comprehensive, convenient and connected for every single person in Ontario to close the gap for people in need of primary care,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “This is how we protect Ontario today, while building the province efficiently and sustainably for future generations.”

More information about how the government continues to make progress on its plan to protect Ontario, by making Ontario one of the most competitive places to invest and do business in the G7 by building a more competitive, more resilient and more self-reliant economy, will be included in the 2026 Budget, to be released on March 26, 2026.

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