Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones speaks at a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor
Ontario is making strides towards ensuring everyone in the province has a primary care provider by 2029, largely due to the clearing of a wait list backlog, Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced on Monday.
So far, around 275,000 individuals have been connected to primary care in the first year of the government’s initiative, Jones shared alongside Dr. Jane Philpott, who previously served as federal health minister and was brought on by the Ontario government about a year ago to lead a primary care action team.
Although the rate of connecting people with family doctors needs to pick up in the coming years to meet the 2029 goal, Jones expressed confidence that this will happen.
“Under Dr. Philpott’s leadership, we are going to hit this goal,” she stated during a press briefing.
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A significant part of this progress is attributed to successfully moving over 177,000 people off the Health Care Connect wait list by primarily matching them with family doctors. However, some individuals were removed because they either found care independently or relocated out of Ontario.
The auditor general noted that this list isn’t fully utilized; only 11 percent of those needing a primary care provider are registered on it and fewer than 10 percent of family doctors are taking patients from that list.
Jones affirmed that the government is dedicated to enhancing the system.
“I would say that Health Care Connect was not being utilized as efficiently as it could be,” she remarked. “Dr. Philpott’s leadership ensures that individuals who sign up for Health Care Connect today have a much better patient experience than they would have had a year ago.”
When launching its primary care plan last year, the government set an interim goal of connecting all individuals on the Health Care Connect wait list as of January 1, 2025 with primary care by spring 2026.
The wait list began with 234,000 people at the start of 2025 and has now reduced to about 57,000. The government claims they are on track to achieve this target. Additionally, another 91,000 people have joined that list since January 1, 2025 according to officials.
The latest estimate from the government indicates there are around 1.98 million Ontarians without access to primary care. Liberal health critic Adil Shamji emphasized that more effort is needed in promoting Health Care Connect if there’s hope for connecting everyone.
“Ontario patients see plenty of ads about projects like Ring of Fire and Ontario Place but what about getting information out regarding this supposedly improved Health Care Connect?” he questioned.
“If this really is what Ontario patients have been looking for then they should show confidence in it and invest in advertising.”
Jones highlighted that the government is also funding numerous new primary care teams across Ontario which can accept thousands more patients along with creating additional medical school seats and expediting licensing for out-of-province doctors moving here.
This report by The Canadian Press was first Jan. 12, 2025.
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