Information
November 2003
Primary Health Care
Primary health care is the foundation of the health care system. When Canadians need health
care, most often they turn to front-line or primary health care services - visiting a family
physician or nurse practitioner, calling telephone health information lines, seeing mental
health workers, or seeking advice from pharmacists.
Ideally, primary health care takes a holistic approach to service delivery, emphasizing
health promotion and the prevention of disease and illness, integrating a diverse range
of health care providers into a well-coordinated team, and fostering collaboration among
these providers to ensure the seamless flow of information from one organization or provider
to the next.
Model primary health care also features 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access to essential
care; multi-disciplinary provider teams offering services that meet the needs of patients;
and physician remuneration for quality care using various payment arrangements.
Primary health care, as described above, is becoming the predominant way in which front-line
services are delivered to Canadians. In fact, federal, provincial, and territorial governments
recognize that the reform of primary health care is the key to efficient, timely, and quality
health care overall. There is growing consensus, for example, that family physicians, nurses,
and other health professionals working side-by-side as partners in a multi-disciplinary
health provider team will result in better health, improved access to services, more efficient
use of resources, and greater satisfaction for both patients and providers.
The 2003 Health Care Renewal Accord demonstrates a commitment by federal and provincial
governments to use the multi-disciplinary team approach to provide all Canadians, wherever
they live, with access to an appropriate health care provider, 24-hours a day, 7 days a
week. First Ministers also agreed to immediately accelerate primary health care initiatives
and to make significant annual progress so that citizens - at least 50 per cent of Canadians
within eight years - will routinely receive needed care from multi-disciplinary primary
health care organizations or teams.
The primary health care reform elements outlined in the Accord build upon the First Ministers'
agreement in 2000. For instance, First Ministers renewed their commitment in 2000 to work
together, and in concert with health professionals, to improve primary health care and
its integration with other components of the health care system. Since that time, all governments
have taken measures to improve the quality, accessibility and sustainability of Canada's
public health care system and all have implemented important reforms.
Primary Health Care Transition Fund
The Government of Canada established the $800-million Primary Health Care Transition Fund
(PHCTF) in September 2000, to support the efforts of provinces and territories and other
stakeholders to develop and implement transitional primary health care reform initiatives.
The PHCTF was also designed to enable recipients to address overarching primary health
care issues that are common nationally or across two or more jurisdictions. In fact, the
PHCTF is unique in its ability to support collaborative initiatives undertaken by more
than one jurisdiction or stakeholder to provide results beyond what any single recipient
could achieve on its own.
The Primary Health Care Transition Fund supports activities that are consistent with the
common objectives for primary health care renewal that were agreed to by all jurisdictions,
namely:
- increase the number of primary health care organizations that are accountable to provide
a prescribed set of comprehensive services to the populations they serve;
- establish multi-disciplinary provider teams within these primary health care organizations;
- facilitate coordination and integration with health services available elsewhere, such
as hospitals;
- increase the emphasis on health promotion, disease and injury prevention, and chronic
diseases management; and
- expand 24 hour a day, 7 days a week access to essential services.
The PHCTF has five envelopes:
- Provincial/Territorial Envelope - allocated primarily on a per capita
basis to provincial and territorial governments to support their efforts to accelerate
and broaden transitional activities that lead to permanent and sustainable primary health
care.
- National Envelope - supports activities that address barriers to primary
health care reform and transitional initiatives that are common nationally.
- Multi-Jurisdictional Envelope - supports collaborative, transitional
initiatives undertaken by two or more provinces/territories to improve primary health
care in multiple jurisdictions and provides governments with the opportunity to work
together to realize economies of scale; encourage the sharing of strengths and experiences
across jurisdictions; increase efficiency by avoiding duplication of effort; and, overcome
common barriers or gaps to primary health care reform.
- Aboriginal Envelope - supports transitional initiatives that benefit
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples; addresses the unique needs of Aboriginal communities;
and improves accessibility of Aboriginal peoples to primary health care, regardless of
where they live in Canada.
- Official Language Minority Communities Envelope - supports transitional
activities that improve access to primary health care services for French and English
speaking minority communities across Canada.
In total, five initiatives have been selected to receive funding under the Multi-Jurisdictional
Envelope of the PHCTF. Building a Better Tomorrow is one of those initiatives.
Building a Better Tomorrow is intended to facilitate change
in Atlantic Canada by engaging current providers in a renewed primary health care system.
A variety of training modules will be developed and delivered to existing health care providers
which will focus on supporting and sustaining change to primary health care service delivery.
It is expected that training and orientation modules will support both face-to-face and
technology-based distance learning and that there will be a cultivation of 'mentors' or
'early adopters' who will act as teachers and guides for persons entering primary health
care professions in the future.
Details regarding the remaining four initiatives will be made public in the near future.
Multi-jurisdictional initiatives funded under the PHCTF will receive monies until March
2006. Many elements of these activities are expected to continue beyond the life of the
PHCTF through the ongoing primary health care reform agendas of participating provinces
and territories.
Visit www.hc-sc.gc.ca/phctf-fassp for
more information.
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