Toward a primary care strategy for Canada : Vers une stratégie des soins primaires pour le Canada

It is delivered in a way that is patient and population-centred and responsive to economic, cultural and social differences”.16 Within Canada and internationally, emerging models of primary care increasingly combine a population orientation with person-centred care and partner with others to promote and protect health, strengthen health literacy and address the social determinants of health – prim [...] In the 2008 Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care, 27% of adults with a regular doctor or place of care reported that a nurse was regularly involved in their care, and 16% reported that other health professionals were involved in their care.49 Recently, the Council of the Federation formed the Team Based Models Theme Group of the Health Care Innovation Working Group for the purpo [...] Quebec has implemented contractual agreements between primary care practices and health institutions at the local, regional and provincial level, and established regional and local departments of family medicine whose mandate is to coordinate the supply and planning of primary care services and work collaboratively with regional health authorities and local health centres.7 British Columbia has su [...] To identify and estimate the magnitude of those gaps, we compare the performance of Canadian primary care to that of the best performers among Canadian provinces and territories and among other countries at a level of economic development comparable to Canada. [...] Addressing areas of common interest to the provinces and territories, such as the pan-Canadian deployment of team- based models of care and clinical practice guidelines, may contribute to driving innovation, system transformation and quality improvement in primary care and other sectors of the healthcare system.