FLA OHT and partners connect over 13,000 people to primary care in 2024

Coordinated regional efforts surpassed target, significantly expanding primary care access across Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington

February 12, 2025.

The Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT) is proud to announce that over 13,000 residents were successfully connected to primary care providers(family doctor or nurse practitioner) across the region in 2024. This achievement far surpassed the initial target of attaching 9,000 residents, which was announced earlier in the year. This highlights the FLA OHT health-care partners’ exceptional collaboration and shared commitment to improving access to primary care. Prior to this effort, an estimated 30,000 residents — approximately 10 per cent of the population in Frontenac, Lennox and Addington — were without a primary care provider.

“Our success in 2024 represents an incredible step forward in addressing the gap for those in our region who don’t have access to a primary care provider,” said Dr. Kim Morrison, Executive Lead, FLA OHT. “Through the tremendous work of our partners and primary care leaders, we’ve made significant progress in ensuring FLA residents have access to high-quality primary care close to home. This progress gives us real momentum as we continue working towards our goal of ensuring that every single person in our region has a primary care provider.”

Highlights of 2024 attachments:

• CDK Kingston Health Home: Attached 4,187 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood.
• Frontenac Doctors: Attached 300 people, including 100 people from Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood and 200 pregnant women and their babies.
• Greenwood Medical Centre: Attached 1,700 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood, and continues to expand its neighbourhood area to include rural communities east of the Cataraqui River. They continue to clear the waitlist on Health Care Connect for their neighbourhood.
• Lakelands Family Health Team: Attached 1,512 people in the rural regions of the OHT.
• Palliative Care Partnerships: Attached 40 people with palliative care needs.
• Queens Family Health Team: Attached 1,500 people primarily through Health Care Connect and other target populations such as unattached pregnant women and newcomers.
• Tsi Kanonhkhwatsheríyo Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Team: Attached 589 Indigenous community members; 109 at its site in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and 480 at its Kingston site.
• Kingston Community Health Centers
  • Greater Napanee Health Home: Attached 2,000 people, including all people registered on Health Care Connect in its neighbourhood, and continues to attach Greater Napanee residents through Health Care Connect.
  • Weller Clinic: Attached 354 individuals, including all people registered on Health Care Connect for the Rideau Heights neighbourhood in Kingston. They also provided access to care to an additional 1,454 residents who do not have a primary care provider.
  • Midtown Kingston Health Home: This newly established clinic team opened its doors in July 2024 and has attached 1,211 people to primary care providers and provided access to care to an additional 1,450 people in the region who do not have a primary care provider. Midtown Kingston Health Home continues to attach residents through Health Care Connect.
  • Street Health Centre: Attached 188 people within their target population of people with substance use concerns, who are unhoused or precariously housed, may have been incarcerated, and/or may be affected by or at risk of acquiring Hepatitis C.
  • Well Baby Care Clinic: Helped attach 685 pregnant women and their newborns to ongoing primary care, in addition to providing well-baby care to 182 newborns without primary care providers in 2024.

The FLA OHT is working to ensure that every single person in the region has access to a primary care provider close to where they live in a People-Centred Health Home. To achieve this, the FLA OHT is supporting existing primary care clinics to become Health Homes, while also working with partners to create new Health Homes to increase the number of primary care teams in the region. As more Health Homes are established, more people will be connected to primary care. People who do not have a primary care provider will be connected to a Health Home in their neighbourhood as soon as there is space available.

People without a primary care provider are encouraged to register with Health Care Connect by calling 1-800-445-1822 or visiting the FLA OHT website to learn more. Clear steps and answers to common questions about the process are provided to support residents in accessing primary care.

The FLA OHT also compiled a comprehensive list of resources to help residents without a primary care provider find the health-care services they need across the region while they wait to be connected to a primary care provider. Find the services on the FLA OHT Community Resources page.