A strong primary care sector is critical to the health of populations and the success of the health care system overall. This system success depends substantially on a strong degree of trust from the community. The pressures of the pandemic have exacerbated the issues in primary care–and as primary care struggles, the downstream impacts are significant and costly for people and providers. As Ontario starts moving from COVID response to COVID recovery, we need to be proactively looking for ways to bolster an already overburdened sector that’s been hit by a shortage of family doctors. But how, when the same resource pressures continue to exist? Community Ambassadors can help.

COVID-19 testing rates in Ontario are down. Even for communities where the incidence of cases remains high and continues rising daily, like in Toronto’s North West and parts of Brampton, not as many people are getting tested. There’s no doubt that part of this effect is due to changing provincial criteria on who can get tested and general confusion on the part of the public of who needs to get tested. But what do we know about the reasons that people chose to get tested in the first place? If we know why people do or don’t seek testing, how can we modify our approaches to reach those who need it?

Published in the Toronto Star by Daniele Zanotti with contributions from Safia Ahmed and Sophia Ikura

Published by Priya Iyer for TVO

Published on Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura, Kate Mulligan, and Safia Ahmed

Published in Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura and Dr. Gillian Kolla

Published in Healthy Debate by Sophia Ikura and Dr. Jasmine Pawa

Don’t ignore the other curves that need to be flattened — unemployment, food insecurity, poor mental health, and housing instability