Family medicine for all: Community health centres serve their neighbours, but capacity issues remain

Advocates say the location-based model, similar to catchment areas, could fix Canada's primary care crisis

On any given day, the employees of Centretown Community Health Centre near downtown Ottawa see a diverse range of patients, from the unhoused to seniors to families with young children who have struggled to find family doctors. 

Similar to a school catchment area, the idea is that anyone who lives in the area — which includes the Glebe, Centretown and Old Ottawa South — is automatically able to qualify for the centre's services. It's an attempt to patch the gaps in a province where over two million people are without primary care. 

Now, though, much like primary care offices across the country, it's contending with capacity issues of its own. While community health centres (CHCs) are aiming to be more efficient with their existing staff to address some of these issues, advocates are calling for ministries of health to expand their efforts toward providing more team-based health care. Clinic staff and other primary care providers say there's a lot the rest of Canada can learn from Centretown's model of collaborative, comprehensive care and location-based access to family doctors. 

Unlike a family doctor's office, which deals just with primary care, the CHC model teams up family physicians with other health professionals, like nurses, social workers and dietitians. This way doctors can focus on the medical piece while patients can access a range of care under one roof. 

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