Primary care is the first point of contact a person has with the health system—it’s where people receive care for most of their everyday health needs.

This might include regular checkups, counselling, pregnancy care and help with managing chronic illnesses. Making healthy lifestyle choices is also an important part of primary care, health promotion and disease prevention.

Primary care is typically provided by family physicians and healthcare professionals such as nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, mental health professionals, therapists and others.

Your primary care team may screen for early detection of illnesses, provide immunizations or teaching, follow up, and monitoring of chronic health conditions such as diabetes or hypertension. They may also refer you to specialists and diagnostic services such as laboratory tests or X-rays.