Welcome to Season 2 of Primary Focus! 🥳
I started on this podcast journey a year ago because I wanted to tell stories that would raise the bar of our imagination about what’s possible when it comes to primary care in Canada. I wanted to help us find a path forward in this country to achieving the OurCare Standard — the vision for primary care that we heard from patients and the public.
In Season 1, we talked about the challenges we’re facing when it comes to primary care in Canada — but also the opportunities:
How we might be able to envision something better.
How we can build an inclusive system that serves our First Peoples.
And, how we can deliver high quality care to everyone.
Plus, I took you with me on my travels to the Netherlands, a country where 99%+ of people have access to primary care, and we reflected on what lessons we could bring back to Canada. 🇳🇱→🇨🇦
But whenever I talk about what we can learn from other countries, someone always pipes up to remind me that there are great things happening right here in this country. And I agree!
That’s why we’re starting off Season 2 with stories of innovative primary care practices across Canada — in Ontario but also Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia. We’ll learn about how clinics are optimizing teams, improving access, delivering care in new ways and staying accountable to the communities they serve.
Before we step inside these clinics, I wanted to have a conversation to unpack one of the key challenges we have in primary care in Canada:
‼️ Not enough family doctors‼️
To do this, I called up my friend and colleague, Dr. Ruth Lavergne, a researcher at Dalhousie University.
In this episode, we talk about: why some family doctors are choosing not to practice full-service family medicine and what we can do about it. We also get into the meaty topic of physician compensation and whether recent changes in how we pay family physicians in some provinces across the country are going to help us get closer to the OurCare Standard.
👀 Here’s a sneak peek 👀
Ruth and I love to nerd out on primary care research—and if you do too, here are some of our recent articles on this topic:
🩺 Here’s the federal report estimating Canada is 23,000 family doctors short.👩🏽⚕️ Jump into my research on the shift away from full-service family medicine.🧑🏻🏫 Cozy up with Ruth’s research on career choices and administrative burden.
💵 Here’s the OECD cross-country comparisons on physician payment we mention in the episode.
AND, DON’T MISS THIS: If you listen to the end, you’ll hear from a few family doctor colleagues who speak candidly about the practice choices they made — whether it’s to stay in full-service family medicine or choose something different — and why.
This podcast is a labour of love for me—a chance for me to engage in conversation with all of you about an issue I care deeply about.
Want to help us grow?
If you’re enjoying our episodes, I would love for you to follow us on your favourite app and share the episodes with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours. The more people we have engaging with these issues, the better.
If you have feedback or suggestions, please email us at primary.focus@unityhealth.to
With gratitude,
Tara
