Primary Health Care Transition Fund

On September 11, 2000, First Ministers agreed that "improvements to primary health care are crucial to the renewal of health services" and highlighted the importance of multi-disciplinary teams. In response to these commitments, in 2001, the Government of Canada announced the Primary Health Care Transition Fund (PHCTF or the Fund), an $800 million investment between the years 2001 - 2002 and 2006 - 2007 to support the transitional costs of implementing sustainable, large-scale primary health care renewal initiatives across Canada. ...

The fifth report is an overall analysis on the role and impact of the PHCTF in primary health care renewal entitled Laying the Groundwork for Culture Change: The Legacy of the Primary Health Care Transition Fund. [...] Health Canada describes PHC as having a dual more of the objectives of the Fund, they also reflected function in the health system: jurisdictional differences and the ways in which governments and stakeholders chose to close the gap • the direct provision of first-contact services (by pro- between available services and the needs of the viders such as family physicians, nurse practition- populatio [...] It is the first level of contact of individuals, Infoway continues to work on devel- the family and community with the national health oping compatible health information system bringing health care as close as possible Setting the Context 1 Primary Health Care Transition Fund to where people live and work, and constitutes a growing appreciation that the problems of the health the first element of [...] While the models differed from jurisdiction to in the next section and in the preface to this report, jurisdiction, fundamental to the process was the integra- this traditional model is increasingly overburdened tion of a range of health services-community, long- and the multi-disciplinary strength of the PHC model term care, residential and acute care services-and often is increasingly being seen [...] First are the foundational elements that build on a strong body of knowledge and require sustained and The answers to accomplishing both the foundational incremental change processes being put in place and and transformational elements lie in the findings of the then worked on over the next five years and beyond.

This paper looks at the way in which the pattern of disease is changing in developing countries, and the implications this has for the way in which primary health care (PHC) programs should be designed and managed. In the absence of an accepted methodology for discussing health management issues, it attempts to develop a conceptual framework suited to analyzing an environment of dynamic change. It applies this framework first to the management of primary health care programs provided by governments, and then to the role of the non-government sector in primary care. The paper draws broad clients. If the general approach adopted seems useful, the conceptual framework needs next to be applied to a series of specific country cases to test its validity and refine it, and to adapt the general conclusions to local cultural, administrative and political conditions.

The fifth report is an overall analysis on the role and impact of the PHCTF in primary health care renewal entitled Laying the Groundwork for Culture Change: The Legacy of the Primary Health Care Transition Fund. [...] The population is aging, agreed that improvements to PHC were crucial to the rates of chronic disease are rising, and the health care modernization of the health care system. [...] The result of their collaboration is improved management, team-based communications and access to care and more effective services for patients satisfying the information needs of clinicians and clients and the communities in which they live. [...] Most of the telehealth initiatives reported that technology: The results of the PHCTF initiatives point to a number of areas which have policy and practice implications, • Enables client access to specialists from a variety particularly: the importance of IM&T planning which of referral centers; is aligned to federal/provincial/territorial health system priorities; the significance of a change man [...] See the appendix for that had been developed prior to the PHCTF, and there- summaries of the PHCTF initiatives reviewed for this fore the benefits accrued during the life of the initia- report.