Contacted by Health Care Connect

If you were on the Health Care Connect waitlist as of January 1, 2025, we will connect you to a family doctor or nurse practitioner by spring 2026 as part of Ontario’s plan to connect every person in the province to primary care by 2029.

You may receive an official letter, email or text message from Health Care Connect asking you to confirm if you still need primary care, and if your information is up to date.

You can also directly contact Health Care Connect by either:

If you have already contacted Health Care Connect to confirm your information, no other action is required at this time. You may disregard additional communication from Health Care Connect related to updating your information.

Find a family doctor or nurse practitioner

A family doctor or nurse practitioner is your primary health care clinician – meaning they are the person you make an appointment with when you have a new, non-emergency health concern. You can learn more about their services below.

Here are two options to find a family doctor or nurse practitioner who is accepting new patients:

  1. Register with Health Care Connect and have a nurse find a doctor or nurse practitioner for you.
  2. Contact an Ontario physician to ask if they are accepting new patients.
    • Use The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s Find a Doctor search.
    • Choose “Advanced Search” to find a doctor near you (by city/town or postal code).
    • Click on “Additional Search Options” to narrow your search (to family doctors and/or language spoken).
    • Contact the doctor to check if they are accepting new patients.

What family doctors and nurse practitioners can do

A family doctor and a nurse practitioner can provide:

  • diagnosis and treatment for common illnesses and injuries
  • referrals to health care specialists who can help with a specific condition
  • support in managing a chronic condition (such as diabetes or high blood pressure)
  • prescriptions for medication
  • regular check-ups including physicals and routine screening tests (e.g., for cancer)

Learn more about nurse practitioner-led clinics.

Find a family doctor or nurse practitioner through Health Care Connect

Register yourself and/or your whole family for Health Care Connect and a care connector will search for a doctor or nurse practitioner who is accepting new patients in your community.

Register online

Or register by phone at 811, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Joining Health Care Connect does not guarantee that a family doctor or nurse practitioner will be found for you immediately. Those who need urgent care will be placed first.

Who can use the program

To use Health Care Connect, you must:

How to join the program

You can sign up for yourself and your whole family or for someone else (with written permission).

  1. To sign up for the program, you’ll be asked for your name, address, health card number and some basic health information that will help determine your health needs.

    There are two ways you can give this information and sign up:

  2. Your request will be given to a Health Care Connect nurse, called a care connector, in your community and they will:
    • review your request
    • try to find you the right family doctor or nurse practitioner in your community who is accepting new patients
    • contact you if a match is found for you and give you their contact information
    • connect you to local health care services to help you with your health care needs while they are looking for a family doctor or nurse practitioner in your community who is accepting new patients
  3. A family doctor or nurse practitioner that has been found for you will contact you as soon as possible — if you choose not to make them your clinician and want Health Care Connect to keep looking, you will have to register again.

If you have already registered and need to make changes

Update your Health Care Connect registration online with any new information, such as new address, contact details, or change in health needs.

Update your information

Learn how to change the address on your health card.

Withdraw from Health Care Connect online when you have found a family doctor or nurse practitioner and no longer need Health Care Connect support.

Withdraw from Health Care Connect

You can also make changes by phone at 811, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Find a doctor by name or specialty

Visit the sites below if you are looking for a specialist in a particular field.

For health care professionals

Find specific information for health care professionals regarding Health Care Connect, including how to join the Health Care Connect Community.