Newly launched services in Toronto make it easier to find and access primary care
The services are designed to help more people, including those facing barriers, find ongoing care from a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
The Mid-West Toronto Ontario Health Team (MWT-OHT) is launching the Community Team and Primary Care Attachment Liaison, two complementary services designed to strengthen access to primary care across the region. Together, the services support both sides of the primary care relationship: helping patients connect to ongoing care, while giving family doctors and nurse practitioners more support to better meet the needs of patients.
Enabled by the Ontario Ministry of Health, the services build on the province’s commitment to connect every person in Ontario to primary care by 2029. Their launch marks a major milestone in how the MWT-OHT is strengthening publicly funded, team-based care for the communities it serves.
The Community Team and Primary Care Attachment Liaison are complementary services that address two critical aspects of access to primary care. While the Community Team makes access to team-based care and allied health services, like mental health counselling and nutrition services, more equitable for family doctors and nurse practitioners in our area, the Primary Care Attachment Liaison makes ongoing primary care more accessible for patients by transforming how they are connected to a provider. Together, they represent innovative solutions, long sought after by primary care providers and patients alike, to strengthen primary care for the communities we serve across Toronto’s west downtown neighbourhoods.
“Primary care is often the front door to the health care system, but for too many people, that door has been hard to open,” says Justine Humphries, Executive Lead for the MWT-OHT. “These services are about making that first connection easier and ensuring more people have a trusted provider and care team that they can turn to before their needs become urgent.”
“As a family doctor, I see every day what it means for a patient to have a provider who knows them and advocates for them,” says Faye Goldman, family doctor and Co-Chair, Mid-West Toronto Family Practice Network. “Patients who have been without primary care for years often arrive with unmanaged chronic conditions and missed screenings. Whether it is getting them access to a dietitian or a social worker, or with onboarding support, or allowing me to see them sooner and manage their issues more efficiently, these services are giving us the tools to help those patients earlier – and that changes everything about the care we are able to provide.”
The Community Team and Primary Care Attachment Liaison are already making a significant impact at the patient level. Currently, more than 15,000 net new individuals in Toronto’s west downtown neighbourhoods have been connected to a primary care provider, and earlier this year, the MWT-OHT cleared the Health Care Connect waitlist of more than 9,000 people who had been waiting for primary care since before January 2025 in our area.
The launch of these services and their achievements to date reflect more than a decade of collaboration across Partners of the MWT-OHT, including the Mid-West Toronto Family Practice Network. The MWT-OHT also recognizes the leadership of the Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, whose mandate to connect every Ontarian to primary care by 2029 has provided the vision, investment, and momentum to make this work possible.
About the Mid-West Toronto Ontario Health Team
The Mid-West Toronto Ontario Health Team (MWT-OHT) brings together more than 400 primary care providers and over 50 health service providers, including community health centres, mental health and substance use services, hospitals, and more, across Toronto’s west downtown neighbourhoods. Guided by the belief that a system designed for our most vulnerable is a system designed for all, the MWT-OHT is committed to building a more integrated and responsive health care system for everyone in Mid-West Toronto and beyond. Learn more at midwesttorontooht.ca