The Primary Care Collaborative welcomes the Ontario government’s announcement of new provincial measures to stop the alarming spread of COVID-19. While the vaccine rollout continues across the province, we are in a race against the variants, and bold action was needed to protect all Ontarians, particularly those most marginalized. We recognize the collective exhaustion with COVID-19 restrictions, including among primary care providers, yet the stay-at-home order is necessary if we are to turn the tide on the pandemic.
A further step needed to slow the spread and halt the devastation of COVID-19 is provincial support for paid sick days, which would support staying home when ill. As well, we echo the Ontario Medical Association in urging those who are able to support their local restaurants and other small businesses by ordering food and other goods through delivery or curbside pickup.
This pandemic has shown time and again that COVID-19 will affect the most vulnerable among us. Primary care will continue to step up by providing care, staffing assessment centres, and now integrally involved in the vaccine rollout. We will do our part to ensure equity is front and centre in our response and we will work together with the Ontario Government and Public Health to end COVID-19.
About the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC):
We are a coalition of primary care organizations collectively representing 14,000 family doctors, 1,000+ primary care nurse practitioners, 286 primary care teams, 28 Indigenous primary care teams, including northern, rural, and remote teams. This alliance of comprehensive primary care organizations joined together by common purpose to build on the collaborative work during the COVID-19 pandemic as we move towards recovery in a time of health system transformation. The PCC provides a collective and cohesive voice with the purpose of advancing equitable person-centred primary care in Ontario and is focused on influencing policy by creating a unified voice towards resolving barriers or challenges that prevent comprehensive primary care from being the foundation of the health system.