Ontario seeking primary care teams for 300,000 patients in plan to match people with doctors [Video]

Ontario is looking for up to 80 new or expanded primary care teams to serve 300,000 patients, as it plans to build a system that automatically attaches people to a family doctor or nurse practitioner team based on their postal code.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the province is launching a call for proposals on Thursday, with $213 million attached to create or expand the 80 teams as part of a $1.8-billion announcement she made on the eve of the provincial election.

Jones and former federal Liberal health minister Jane Philpott, who the Progressive Conservative government has tapped to be the head of a provincial primary care action team, announced in January that Ontario would spend that money over the next few years to give all Ontarians access to primary care by 2029.

The government plans to achieve that by creating a system that automatically connects people to a primary care team based on postal code, and this call for …