Thompson and Rae Announce Expansion of Primary Care in Listowel and Wingham

[Listowel, ON]— Today, the Honourable Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce, and Matthew Rae, MPP for Perth-Wellington announced that the Listowel-Wingham Family Health Team will receive $822,604 to expand primary care to serve an additional 2,000 residents in Huron and Perth Counties. This is part of a larger province wide investment of $110 million to connect up to 328,000 people to a primary care.

“This investment will go a long way towards ensuring that in the Wingham and Listowel area, people can access quality care in a timely manner,” said Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce. She added, “it will have far-reaching benefits and is an expression of our government’s commitment to look to the future and listen to the needs of our local communities.”

“This funding is crucial for our rural communities,” Rae said. “This investment is the first major expansion in Ontario of Interprofessional Primary Care Teams since their inception in 2005.”

Ontario leads the country with 90 per cent of people connected to a regular health care provider. To close the gap, the government is making record investments of $90 million to add over 400 brand new primary care providers within 78 new and expanded interprofessional primary care teams.

An additional $20 million will provide a boost to all existing interprofessional primary care teams, helping meet increased operational costs for their facilities and supplies so that they may continue providing high-quality care.

“Our government is making record investments to ensure that everyone that wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “While there is more work to do, giving hundreds of thousands of more Ontarians the opportunity to connect to primary care brings us that much closer to this goal.”

“I want to congratulate the Listowel-Wingham Family Health Team on their successful application,” Rae added. “Our government is investing in rural healthcare to ensure residents receive care closer to home. There is more work to be done, and I look forward to continuing to work with our local Family Health Teams to ensure that everyone who wants to have a primary care provider can access one.”

In addition to expanding medical school spots and making it easier for internationally trained doctors to provide care, Ministry of Health modelling shows this will help connect up to 98 per cent of Ontarians to primary care in the next several years.

Since the launch of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care one year ago, the government has been making steady progress to ensure the health care system has become better equipped to respond to the needs of patients and provide them with the right care in the right place, faster access to services and access to an expanded health care workforce.

Quotes:

“The Mobile Primary Care Clinic Team is a collaboration among the 8 Family Health Teams and Community Health Centre (Grand Bend) in Huron Perth and area to provide primary care services to an estimated 2,000 unattached residents of our communities. The team of Nurse Practitioners, nurses and a case manager/navigator will focus on preventative care, chronic disease management and care navigation. The mobile team will run clinics at the various primary care clinics throughout Huron Perth, which will reduce barriers to primary care services and ease pressures on emergency departments. Clinics will be scheduled on a rotating basis in the various communities, which will help meet the needs of our rural communities.”

– Robin Spence Haffner, Executive Director, Listowel-Wingham Family Health Team