Healthcare in the City of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County is getting a boost of almost $3.5 million from the provincial government.
The Ontario Ministry of Health will provide $3,493,400 to the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team for the Kawartha North Family Health Team to expand interprofessional primary care teams to Coboconk, Woodville, and Minden so that up to 6,902 people have access to primary healthcare.
The funding announcement was made on Tuesday (July 15) by Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott at the $16-million Summit Wellness Centre, currently under construction off Highway 35 in Coboconk, which aims to be a community hub that will include doctors and nurse practitioners, a walk-in clinic, pharmacy, lab services, dental services, and more.
“By building on existing infrastructure and supporting all healthcare providers across the system, this initiative will strengthen team-based care and enhance access to publicly funded high-quality primary healthcare in underserved communities,” MPP Scott said in a media release.
While the expansion will be led by the Kawartha North Family Health Team, the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton-Ontario Health Team will establish a process to accept new patients and will communicate that process to local communities.
The Ontario government introduced Ontario Health Teams in 2019 as a new integrated model for healthcare that brings healthcare providers in a region together as one collaborative team, with the aim of making it easier for patients to move from one provider to another to access the healthcare services they need.
“This is a significant milestone in our journey towards fully integrated, team-based care for the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton region,” said Dr. Jacquelyn Choi, the primary care lead for the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton-Ontario Health Team.
“The new interprofessional team hubs will expand the geographical reach of our primary care providers by working collaboratively with other health professionals, ensuring that every patient receives the right care from the right provider at the right time.”
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.
“This funding enables us to deliver on our community’s long-standing need for equitable, local access to high-quality primary care,” said Kawartha North Family Health Team executive director Marina Hodson.
“It’s a game changer for patients, especially in our rural and underserved communities. We are especially proud of the collaborative effort that this proposal represents — the collective focus on improving access to care in our community will be highly impactful.”
The Kawartha North Family Health Team was approved for provincial funding in a recent call for proposals as part of the Ontario government’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan to add over 300 new primary care teams across the province.
The plan includes $235 million in 2025-26 for over 130 new and expanded primary care teams to help connect 300,000 people to primary care this year, with the initial round of funding focused on communities, identified by postal codes, that have the highest number of unattached patients.
