Thoughts on the quality of primary care? There’s a survey for that

Organizers of a national survey on primary healthcare want more northerners to take part before the July 30 deadline.

The 2025 OurCare survey asks Canadians how the primary care they receive measures up to their expectations and national standards.

The deadline, initially July 9, was extended after this article was first published.

OurCare has existed since 2022, when nearly 10,000 people gave their feedback to help researchers draw up six statements about primary care that are called the OurCare Standard.

But Dr Tara Kiran, a Toronto-based family doctor and research scientist leading OurCare’s work, says that first survey – over 16 months – did not receive any completed responses from the territories.

“We want things to be different this time around,” Dr Kiran told Cabin Radio.

Dr Sarah Cook, a member of the NWT Medical Association’s executive, said getting NWT residents to fill out the latest OurCare survey is “a huge opportunity for us to get northern voices heard in what it is like to experience or access primary care in the territories.”

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. You need to be 18 years or older to take part.

“We’ve never had an opportunity of this kind, as far as I know, to participate in a survey that would give us back data we collectively need to really understand: how are we doing and what are the pain points?” said Dr Cook.

“If we get enough responses, we’ll be able to receive that data back, saying: ‘This is what the NWT respondents felt, this is what Yukon respondents felt, this is what Nunavut respondents felt.’ But we can only get that data if we have enough respondents.”

What did the first survey do?

The first time around, OurCare asked questions about what Canadians wanted from primary care.

The idea of the survey was to ensure patients’ voices were heard alongside those of policymakers, clinicians and researchers when provinces and territories set standards for primary care services to hit.

No northerners took part.

“I think we just weren’t able to penetrate deeply enough in the territories to get the word out for people to respond,” said Kiran.

Even so, Cook thinks the resulting six statements that form the OurCare Standard are readily applicable to northern patients.

“I believe those standards very likely do represent what northerners would also like, but we can’t say it represents their voice,” she said.

The six basic statements that form the OurCare Standard are:

1. Everyone has a relationship with a primary care clinician who works with other health professionals in a publicly funded team.

2. Everyone receives ongoing care from their primary care team and can access them in a timely way.

3. Everyone’s primary care team is connected to community and social services that together support their physical, mental and social well-being.

4. Everyone can access their health record online and share it with their clinicians.

5. Everyone receives culturally safe care that meets their needs from clinicians that represent the diversity of the communities they serve.

6. Everyone receives care from a primary care system that is accountable to the communities it serves.

Those statements “describe what every person in Canada should be able to extract from the primary care system,” said Kiran.

What will the new survey achieve?

“The second round is getting a sense of how we measure up to those standards,” said Cook.

Kiran said the latest survey is designed to help healthcare workers and policy experts “understand how people’s experiences of care actually match up to what they told us they wanted to see.”

In the North, there has been no shortage of discussion about where the healthcare system is struggling to meet residents’ needs.

Cook acknowledged that within the system, “we can all guess” what the feedback of patients might be, “but it sure would be very helpful to hear that from the population’s perspective.”

Going through the OurCare Standard, she picked out some examples.

“It’s things like: ‘Everyone should have a relationship with a primary care clinician who works in a team.’ We’ve talked about that lots in the territories, but do people feel like they’re actually getting that?” Cook asked.

She also picked out the statement within the OurCare Standard that all people should be able to access their health records easily online.

“Canadians said we should all have this. We’re nowhere near that in any of the territories,” she noted.

Survey responses are “de-identified,” OurCare says. According to the group, that means you aren’t asked for your name or any other directly identifying information.

In a statement, the NWT’s Department of Health and Social Services said the GNWT supports OurCare “as a key part of ongoing national primary healthcare reform efforts.”

“We will be promoting and encouraging participation in the OurCare survey by residents to ensure that its sample of respondents is an accurate reflection of the NWT’s population,” the department stated.

“The research findings will also help us understand the current experiences of residents, and how they compare to the national OurCare Standard and will help to shape the future of primary and community healthcare delivery in the NWT.”