By Jessica Hellen
The Ontario government says family health teams are the answer to creating stronger, more accessible community-based primary health care.
The teams will be made up of doctors, nurses and other health professionals, who will arrange their schedules so that one member of the team will always be available after hours.
While Centretown already boasts a clinic with 24-hour services, Marguarite Keeley, executive director of the Centretown Community Health Clinic, says the city would benefit from implementation of the teams.
“(Ottawa) is short of primary health providers and if this would help get more, that would be fine,” she says.
More than 200 applications have currently been received from interested teams.
“The reaction across the province has been very positive,” says Jim MacLean, lead of primary care for the ministry of health and long-term care’s health results team. “We’ve received a lot of support from community health providers, doctors, nurses and hospitals.”
The purpose of the teams are to provide patient-centred care and “emphasize health promotion, illness prevention and early detection,” writes Patten, who was unavailable for comment.
“We all know that people don’t get conveniently sick between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,” said Ottawa Centre MPP Richard Patten in a press release. “Far too many people end up lining up in the emergency room because their local clinic closes in the evenings.”
Patients will first have to call the Telephone Health Advisory Service and speak to a registered nurse who assesses their condition. If the patient requires immediate care, a member of the family health team who is on call will see the patient.
The teams are currently being evaluated and the government will announce the first 45 family health teams before the end of March.
“We’ll be looking at population need and current services available in the community,” says David Jensen, spokesperson for the ministry of health and long-term care.
The members and the size of each family health team will vary according to community needs, however the minimum requirement per team is four.
“There’s good evidence from studies done around the world that interdisciplinary team-based care achieves better outcomes for patients,” says MacLean.
He says health providers will also benefit .
“Professionals working in those environments are more satisfied with their work day. It allows them to deliver better care and they feel supported, interacting with other professionals,” he says.
Before the teams can be implemented MacLean says they must hire professionals, develop infrastructure, create a governance model and establish the technology they will use.
According to Patten’s press release, the Ontario government plans to commit $600 million over the next four years.
MacLean says 150 teams will be created by 2007, which will help approximately 2.5 million Ontarians.
Keeley says the government can look to the Centretown clinic as a model.
“Our big success is that we have a wide variety of health professionals working together to help individuals be assisted in having good health.”