Community Council Spotlight: Kerry Stewart
April 8, 2025.
In our latest Community Council Spotlight, we are proud to feature Kerry Stewart, a dedicated member of the FLA OHT Community Council and the Access to Primary Care Working Group. Kerry brings a unique perspective to our work and health-care co-design efforts as a retired high school principal and a dedicated advocate for people- and family-centred care. Kerry’s personal journey - shaped by the loss of her husband to cancer and her own experience living with chronic health challenges - has driven her to contribute to advancing our health-care system and improving primary care access across the region.
From personal loss to community leadership
Kerry’s path to becoming a passionate community advocate began with her family’s experiences with illness. After her husband’s rapid decline from Stage 4 colorectal cancer, she noticed critical gaps in the health system.
“My husband was diagnosed at a young age and his journey from diagnosis to death was six months. During that time he received excellent clinical care, but the ball was dropped every time there was a transition, and I realized that these were the pieces that no [health-care] professionals could see,” Kerry recalls. This realization led her to become deeply involved in various Patient & Family Advisory Councils (PFAC). Over the past 13 years, she has served on the Kingston Health Sciences Centres PFAC, the South East Regional Cancer PFAC, and now the FLA OHT. “My commitment to sharing the patient and family experience at all levels of leadership and planning is deep,” she explains.
Kerry’s experiences navigating the health-care system extend beyond her advocacy in her late husband’s care. She manages her own multiple chronic conditions—including congenital heart failure, severe arthritis, and Parkinson’s Disease—and has been a steadfast advocate for her father’s care, a WWII veteran living with extreme arthritis, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “For two years, I called 20 [different] family doctors’ offices every week, hoping to secure a spot for my senior father,” she notes. These experiences have deepened her understanding of the importance of continuous, compassionate care and fuelled her commitment to improving health-care access.
Driving forward access to primary care
Kerry understands firsthand the integral role of primary care providers in a person’s health outcomes and the foundational role they play in the broader health-care system. “I have had a 50-year relationship with my current family doctor and her predecessor—that is longer than any other selective relationship I will have in my lifetime! She sees the whole me and is able to treat me as a whole person,” Kerry emphasizes. This trust and continuity of care have empowered her to support others in the community. As an active member of the FLA OHT’s Access to Primary Care Working Group, she is focused on increasing access to primary care and breaking down barriers to timely, equitable care for everyone.
“We are slowly but steadily moving towards a health system that enables primary care attachment for everyone in our region,” Kerry shares. She notes that the FLA OHT, together with its partners and the dedication of the Access to Primary Care Working Group, connected more than 13,000 individuals to a primary care provider across the region in 2024. Kerry explains that having a regular primary care provider means residents have a reliable place for routine health care, which can lead to earlier diagnosis and consistent monitoring of health issues. It also eases the pressure on hospitals—especially emergency departments that often serve as the only option for many seeking diagnosis and treatment. “Simply put, access to primary care for all will enable our health system to maximize its capacity to deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” underscores Kerry
A vision for a more equitable future
Even with the successful connections to primary care providers over the last year, Kerry notes that much work remains—pointing to the estimated 30,000 residents who were identified as being without a primary care provider before these attachments. The Working Group and FLA OHT partners continue to work together to explore innovative ways to ensure that every person in our region has a primary care provider.
Working alongside visionary leaders like Dr. Elaine Ma, Chair of the Working Group, Kerry believes that this goal is achievable and sees the future of primary care as one that is person-centred and fully inclusive. She notes that Dr. Ma’s collaborative leadership style and clear vision have empowered Kerry and her fellow Working Group members to keep pushing for systemic improvements. “Dr. Ma is relentlessly positive and frequently confirms that while we have much to do and many barriers to overcome, together, we can do this important work.”
In her role as a community council member, Kerry brings the community voice directly to the planning tables. She believes that only through community input can the system address the real gaps that people experience in their care.
To learn more, visit the Community Members page on the FLA OHT website.