In the last 18 months, more than 9,000 people in Grey and Bruce counties have found a primary care provider, which is a big improvement for healthcare access in the region.
Lindsay Johnston, Executive Director of the Grey Bruce Ontario Health Team, shared this positive news during her recent presentation to Grey County council. She emphasized ongoing progress towards the team’s goal of connecting all local residents to regular care by 2029.
“We actually have now attached over 9,000 local residents to primary care, so a physician or nurse practitioner,” Johnston explained. “We are now 40 per cent of the way there to our larger goal of attaching over 23,500 Grey Bruce residents to primary care.”
Johnston noted that while it’s an ongoing challenge to expand access, the increase in patient numbers is giving local health administrators great motivation.
Earlier this year, they successfully removed everyone from their Health Care Connect waitlist who had signed up before 2025.
“It was just over 5,400 Grey Bruce residents on the Health Care Connects list, and we were able to either attach them all to primary care locally or if they had moved or already been attached, we cleared them from that waitlist,” Johnston continued.
Instead of long delays like before, residents are now benefiting from a flexible system that quickly manages and reduces waitlists as new clinical capacity becomes available. To build on this success, leadership has set a new interim target of connecting another 9,000 individuals to primary care during this fiscal year. Since April alone, they’ve already brought on board 1,700 patients while waiting for approved provincial funds for local providers.
Although those promised government funds are officially confirmed and expected soon, the deadline for hitting this specific intake target has been pushed back to June 2027. The expansion efforts have largely been supported by $7 million in permanent base funding awarded to the regional health team since late summer of 2025. This funding allows for more salaried clinical positions which help existing doctor groups manage larger patient panels.
To achieve their goal of adding another 9,000 patients during this time frame, health officials believe they’ll need around $4 million in extra support. They also anticipate two additional provincial funding application opportunities before reaching 2029.
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