Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
Two local health agencies will be sharing in a $947,500 investment by the Ontario government to help shorten primary care waitlists and give more people access to a family physician. The funding, announced recently by Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, will be split between the West Nipissing Community Health Centre (WNCHC), the West Nipissing Family Health Team and the Mattawa Family Health Team, with the WNCHC as the lead organization responsible for disbursements and reporting.
The funds are being issued as part of the Primary Care Action Plan, which aims to eliminate primary care waitlists across all of Ontario. According to a news release from Fedeli’s office, the action plan will see $2.1 billion invested into existing primary care teams, and into creating new ones “to connect approximately two million more people to a family physician or primary care team by 2029.”
The announcement was welcome news for WNCHC Executive director Guy Robichaud, and WN Family Health Team Executive Director Maxine Savage. However, they admit that the funds announced fall short of the amount requested in their application. According to Robichaud, their organisations are getting roughly 60% of what they needed to implement the plan laid out in their initial request. This meant going back to the drawing board on a new plan to make use of what the province will deliver. Robichaud explains that over the summer, he and his other primary care partners got together and worked out the details of a new implementation plan that the province would approve. After significant back and forth with the province, this approval finally came on October 27.
“There’s the Family Health Team in Mattawa, the Family Health Team in Sturgeon, and then us. Together, with that funding, we’re responsible for attaching 2,560 patients across all three organisations,” describes Robichaud.
