Premier makes PHC guarantee for everyone to have either a family doctor or Nurse Practitioner.
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals will ensure that every Ontarian has access to a primary care provider by 2018, if re-elected on June 12.
Joined by local Liberal candidate Eleanor McMahon in Burlington today, Premier Wynne talked about how Liberals will build on their record of success in health care with the introduction of a Primary Care Guarantee. The Guarantee will provide all Ontarians with access to a doctor or nurse practitioner within four years.
To make the Guarantee a reality, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals will:
- Focus on northern, rural, and fast-growing communities to improve availability and access to primary care, including the use of Community Health Centres and satellites.
- Work with our physician partners to help them take on more patients, faster.
- Â Improve the recruitment and retention of community-based primary care teams.
- Increase the number of Health Links from 54 to 90 across the province. Health Links connect high needs patients with a care coordinator, to help them navigate the system, including access to primary care.
- Work with our doctors and nurse practitioners to get the right providers into the communities that need them.
Today, 93 per cent of Ontarians have access to a doctor or nurse practitioner as a result of the investments made by the Liberal government over the past 10 years. The Primary Care Guarantee will help us reach the remaining seven per cent of Ontarians who do not have access to primary care.
Fulfilling the primary care guarantee is estimated to cost less than $20 million and its costs are covered within the fiscal framework of the 2014 budget. If re-elected, Ontario Liberals will reintroduce the budget.
Under the PCs, 28 hospitals were closed, taking 7,000 beds away from patients who needed them. Now, the Hudak PCs have promised to cut 100,000 jobs from the public sector, which will have a significant impact on health care providers and services.
Only Ontario Liberals have made a commitment to ensuring fair and equitable access to care for all Ontarians.
Learn more here.
Source:Â http://kathleenwynne.ca/guaranteeing-primary-care-ontarians/
