Access Clinics: Advancing Equity Through Team-Based Primary Care in East Toronto

Background: Timely access to primary care remains one of Ontario’s most pressing health equity challenges. In East Toronto, newcomers, racialized residents, and people experiencing housing or income insecurity face intersecting barriers such as language, discrimination, and system complexity leading to delayed or unmet care needs.

Neighbourhood data reveal striking contrasts: while Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park are among the most marginalized communities in East Toronto, their emergency department visit rates remain comparatively low - 294 and 306 per 1,000 population, compared with 335 in Broadview North, a neighborhood with similar socioeconomic challenges but slightly higher ED utilization. This suggest that structural barriers, rather than lower need, limit access to both emergency and primary care.

 

To address these inequities, Flemingdon Health Centre and Health Access Thorncliffe Park, in partnership with The Neighbourhood Organization (TNO), launched Access Clinics, offering low-barrier, culturally safe, team-based care that integrates primary care, mental health, chronic disease management, and social prescribing, supported by Holistic Intake and Navigation Counselors who address social determinants of health.

Since inception, Access Clinics have served nearly 4,000 clients, facilitated primary care attachment for over 590 individuals, and reduced avoidable emergency visits. By embedding equity principles -accessibility, trust-building, intersectionality, and collaboration - the model demonstrates how integrated care can directly improve outcomes for populations most often left behind by traditional systems.

 

Audience: This workshop will engage health system leaders, clinicians, planners, and community partners seeking to embed equity and inclusion within integrated care design, delivery, and evaluation. It will be especially relevant to Ontario Health Teams and community-based organizations striving to reach underserved populations and measure the equity impact of new primary care access pathways.

 

 

Approach: The 90-minute workshop will combine data, storytelling, and participatory learning.

• Introduction (10 min): Framing access as an equity issue and overview of the Access Clinic model.
• Impact Review (15 min): Presentation of local data on emergency department use and population marginalization, showing how the model addresses inequities
• Case Story (10 min): Illustrating culturally safe, trust-based engagement through a client story (Afghan refugee family).
• Interactive Group Work (30 min): Participants identify equity barriers within their own systems and co-design responsive access strategies.
• Plenary Discussion (15 min): Synthesis of shared learning and key enablers for scaling equity-oriented care.

 

Outcomes: Participants will:

1.Understand how Access Clinics operationalize equity by addressing social and structural barriers to care.

2.Learn strategies for integrating cultural safety, trauma-informed practice, and social prescribing into interprofessional care.

3.Review measurable outcomes demonstrating improved access, reduced emergency use, and strengthened community connection.

4.Identify tools and metrics for evaluating equity impact within their own settings.

Workshop synopsis:

By centering equity as both a process and an outcome, this workshop will demonstrate how intentional design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and trust-building can transform access models into vehicles for health justice and system integration.