Over 16 months, between September 2022 and December 2023, OurCare engaged nearly 10,000 people about their experiences with primary care and their values, ideas, and hopes for the future and improvement of that care.
The conversation placed special emphasis on engaging people who have the greatest needs of care, face the greatest barriers to accessing care, and are most likely to be excluded from policy-making decisions about primary care. OurCare had three phases:
- A National Survey
- Five Provincial Priorities Panels
- Ten Community Roundtables
To support all three phases, OurCare convened five provincial advisory groups and two national advisory groups comprising primary care clinicians, researchers, health care administrators, policy-makers and more. We also partnered with more than 75 experts and health care leaders who engaged directly with participants in dialogue and knowledge-building.
The OurCare Standard represents what every person living in Canada should be able to expect of the primary care they receive. And it provides a framework for comparing different models of primary care and levelling up those models to realize better primary care for everyone living in Canada.
The OurCare Standard
- Everyone has a relationship with a primary care clinician who works with other health professionals in a publicly funded team.
- Everyone receives ongoing care from their primary care team and can access them in a timely way.
- Everyone’s primary care team is connected to community and social services that together support their physical, mental and social well-being.
- Everyone can access their health record online and share it with their clinicians.
- Everyone receives culturally safe care that meets their needs from clinicians that represent the diversity of the communities they serve.
- Everyone receives care from a primary care system that is accountable to the communities it serves.