As retired family doctors, together we have more than 80 years of experience in Family Medicine. We have delivered babies, worked in emergency departments, done home visits, and provided palliative care. We have worked in fee-for-service practices, community health centres, group practices and family health teams. We advocate for a team-based primary care system that we know will help address access and many other interconnected problems Canadians face.
Well-supported, collaborative, team-based primary care is a solution that would create a positive upward spiral with impacts far beyond primary care. Ontario had developed in 2005. More than 180 teams have been created, but no new teams have been funded since 2012. These teams have family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other health-care professionals. Often there is a clinical pharmacologist, a social worker, and a dietician on the team.
Administrative support needs to be provided to doctors and other health-care professionals. To recruit to underserved and especially rural communities, functional facilities and equipment will need to be provided, as it is to the doctors who work in hospitals. This model will need to be expanded to make family medicine viable in many settings.