The Enhanced Primary Care Pathways program found 84% of patients who would normally have to wait to see a specialist were unnecessarily referred. It was designed to link family doctors with specialists to eliminate unnecessary referrals and give patients with non-urgent concerns specialist-level care. The program cut wait times for non-urgent gastrointestinal patients by 98% between 2016 and 2018, with the wait list reduced from 2,742 patients to 30. With this model, family doctors use a document allowing them to assess and triage patients as a specialist would. It also gives the doctors access to a phone line to receive direct advice from specialists.
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