Ontario's defunct science table says the burden of COVID-19 will sit on the shoulders of primary care doctors and nurses from now on if no new variant emerges.
But they say the way that medical care is delivered must be reconsidered.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table released its final three briefs today, focusing on the response to the pandemic by family doctors and nurses.
The table says primary care teams with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and community health care workers provide better care than solo practitioners.
Some of those teams were able to fill the gap in rural and underprivileged parts of the province, but significantly more are needed on a permanent basis.
Senior author and family physician Doctor Danielle Martin says massive investment in primary care teams can ease the burden on Ontario's strained hospitals.
Public Health Ontario dissolved the independent voluntary science table in early September, and a new group under its watch is set to convene sometime this month.