Province provides millions to attach up to 10,675 area patients to health care

Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp at the primary care announcement with MPP Ric Bresee, for Hastings-Lennox and Addington.

The Ontario Government announced $4,456,100 to help connect up to 10,675 people to a publicly-funded family doctor, or primary care team, in Hastings and Prince Edward counties.

Eight primary care teams within the Hastings Prince Edward Ontario Health Team catchment area are to establish a process to accept new patients and communicate this to their local community.

The organizations include the Prince Edward Family Health Team, the Belleville and Quinte West Community Health Centre, Belleville’s Queen’s Family Health Team, the Lakeview Family Health Team, the Belleville Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic, the Gateway Community Health Centre, the Central Hastings Family Health Team, and the Bancroft Community Family Health Team.

“Reliable access to primary care is essential to the health and wellness of Hastings and Prince Edward residents, helping them navigate the health-care system and allowing them to be productive members of our communities. It also supports Quinte Health in providing acute and urgent care when we need it,” said Tyler Allsopp, MPP for Bay of Quinte. “I’m pleased to see our government has recognized and funded this collaborative, regional approach to attach patients to providers quickly.”

The funds are part of the government’s ‘Primary Care Action Plan’ to help connect 300,000 people to primary care this year.

The proposal was funded through a recent call for proposals focused on communities —identified by postal code — with the highest number of residents not connected to primary care, including those on the Health Care Connect waitlist.

Each successful team has established a plan to attach a high proportion of unattached people in their postal codes and demonstrated readiness to achieve significant progress within a year.

“Having quality primary care reduces mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer. It also reduces hospital admissions and emergency department use,” said Dr. Robert Pincock, the Co-Lead of the Hastings Prince Edward Family Health Team Primary Care Network and a physician at the Queen’s Family Health Team.

“On behalf of County council and our residents, I would like to thank the Province of Ontario for providing this funding to our community,” said Steve Ferguson, Mayor Prince Edward County. “We will continue to bring forward initiatives aimed at providing more and more people in the community with opportunities to receive primary care.”

The investment is part of the $2.1 billion plan to add more than 300 new primary care teams across the province. This includes $235 million in 2025-26 that in part is supporting over 130 new and expanded primary care teams across the province.

QUICK FACTS
• Interprofessional primary care teams connect people to a range of health professionals that work together under one roof, including registered and registered practical nurses,
physiotherapists, social workers, and pharmacists, helping patients to receive more connected and convenient care.
• Eligible teams not selected for funding in this round will be encouraged to refine and resubmit their proposals for the next call for proposals, which is expected to launch in September 2025.
• Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, will implement its action plan supported by the government’s historic investment of more than $2.1 billion to connect approximately two million more people to a family physician or primary care team by 2029 to achieve the government’s goal of connecting everyone in the province to primary care.
• The Ontario Government recently passed the Primary Care Act, 2025., which establishes primary care as the foundation of Ontario’s health-care system and sets out six clear objectives for Ontario’s publicly funded primary care system to ensure people know what they can expect when connecting to primary care.
• In 2024, Ontario invested $110 million in primary care teams across the province, helping to connect 328,000 more people to primary care close to home.