3PC-I: Pandemic Planning for Primary Care - Implementing a plan in Southwestern Ontario

Primary care providers (i.e., family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and registered/licensed practical nurses) play critical roles in pandemic response. However, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, response plans did not include concrete steps to develop and implement plans for primary care. Building on a review of the supports described in the literature, primary care providers, public health professionals and health system managers will rank the supports for primary care providers at the clinic, community and region-level. Working groups will operationalize the prioritized supports and draft pandemic plans for the clinic, community, and region. We will study the documents from the working groups and interview their members to understand how the groups decided which supports to operationalize and how, and the facilitators and barriers to creating the clinic, community and region-level pandemic plans for primary care. The project addresses the pressing need to preserve the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic response and incorporate them into future pandemic preparedness plans. An effective primary care pandemic response is integral to the preservation and promotion of the health of the population, health system functioning, and the protection and wellbeing of the primary care workforce. The project will create tools to aid in pandemic planning in other communities.