The FLA OHT, together with Maple Family Health Team, as the primary care team lead organization, and family physicians and nurse practitioners across the region, were all involved in developing the Spruce Health Hub.

The new Spruce Health Hub supports care close to home by strengthening our local Health Home Framework and creating a single, coordinated point of access for family physicians and nurse practitioners to refer people in need of mental health services, chronic disease management, physiotherapy and community supports. 

By expanding the ways people can access team-based care in our region, whether through scheduled visits, same‑day appointments, group programs, or virtual care, the Spruce Health Hub helps reduce barriers, improves timely access, and supports attachment to a consistent care provider. 

The Health Hub brings together a range of care and support services to address both medical needs and social determinants of health, with a strong focus on patient attachment and navigation. 

The Hub creates capacity by ensuring the right professional is handling the right task. When a physiotherapist or a social worker manages the specialized care they do best, it frees up family doctors or nurse practitioners to focus on more patients. 

• Nurse practitioner
• Nurse
• Dietitian
• Social worker
• Psychologist/psychotherapist
• Community outreach worker
• Physiotherapist

The Health Home Framework is centred around team-based care, but not all primary care clinics have interprofessional teams. The Hub supports and strengthens primary care by providing other services, such as chronic disease management and mental health counselling. This interprofessional team is meant to complement the family physician and nurse practitioner, not replace it.

People-Centred Health Homes across the region are connecting community members to "care close to home", through geographic attachment, as space and capacity allows. People are attached to Health Homes through Health Care Connect, as well as through priority populations, such as pregnant people, newborns and infants, people with cancer, and those identified through the Integrated Care Pathways for Chronic Disease.

Referrals are currently accepted from primary care providers (family physicians and nurse practitioners) from partnering Health Homes (Greenwood Medical, Frontenac Doctors, Princess Street Medical Clinic, CDK Family Medicine, and Medical Tree). 

After you have been referred o the Spruce Health Hub for services, you will be contacted by the team at the Hub to book your appointment and answer any questions. 

The Hub's team-based services are currently by appointment only for people attached to a partnering Health Home. See referral process for more information.  

The Spruce Health Hub also supports family doctors attaching people to their Health Homes. People from the Health Care Connect list may be first connected to a nurse practitioner to address their immediate needs with support from the entire Hub team. From there, the Hub and Health Care Connect coordinates with local Health Homes to ensure people are permanently attached to a primary care team close to home. 

The FLA OHT received $1,495,100 from the Ontario government to attach up to 3,500 community members in the region to a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team by April 2026.

This funding is part of Ontario’s $2.1-billion Primary Care Action Plan, which aims to connect 300,000 people to primary care across the province this year. Funding was awarded through a provincial call for proposals focused on communities with high numbers of residents not connected to primary care, including those on the Health Care Connect waitlist. This funding is helping open the Spruce Health Hub.