/Proposed health care changes will benefit riding: MPP 

Proposed health care changes will benefit riding: MPP 

By Chad Ingram

Published March 9, 2018 

 
Haliburton-Kawartha
Lakes-Brock MPP and Ontario Labour Minister Laurie Scott says her
government’s overhaul of Ontario’s health-care system is about reducing
bureaucracy, eliminating a culture of silo care, and bringing health
care back to a more locally controlled level. 
 
Last
week, Health Minister Christine Elliott announced sweeping changes to
the health-care system that will restructure it completely. The plan is
for the government to dissolve the Local Health Integration Networks
(LHINs), folding their operations into a single, large agency to oversee
health care in the province. The so-called super agency will include
the former LHINs along with six other provincial health agencies,
including eHealth Ontario and Cancer Care Ontario. 
 
“If
you’re a patient, the layers you have to go through to get the health
care you need can be incredibly challenging,” Scott told the Times. “Too
many layers of bureaucracy.” 
Scott,
who worked as nurse before she was first elected to the legislature in
2003, said for patients managing chronic illnesses, it has meant getting
treatment through a number of different organizations. 
 
“All
these agencies have different functions,” Scott said. “It’s breaking
down the silos. It had to have a major, transformational shift.” 
 
Scott
said having to deal with various agencies has meant some patients
getting lost between the cracks, and have had to act as their own
medical historians. 
 
“It is a big transformation that is happening for a system that is not working,” she said. 
Scott was asked if the transformation would mean job losses in the health-care sector. 
“Not
frontline care deliverers, no,” she replied, indicating that as things
are restructured it’s possible there will be bureaucratic-type job
losses. 
 
Ontario
NDP leader Andrea Horwath and other critics have said they believe the
creation of a single-agency model could lead to the contracting out of
health-care services to private providers. 
 
Scott said the PC party is committed to universal access to a publicly funded health-care system. 
 
“It’s part of who we are as Canadians and Ontarians,” she told the Times. 
 
The government has said that family health teams and people’s access to their family physicians will not change. 
 
Rather
than an instituted integration framework from the top down as was
created and enforced under the LHINs, the single-agency model will
encourage health-care providers to form integrated groups amongst
themselves, and submit proposals for those groups, of which it’s
expected there will be 30 to 50 in the province. There are 14 LHINs. 
 
“It’s
going to evolve those partnerships . . . some already exist,” Scott
said, referring to service agreements between Haliburton Highlands
Health Services and Lindsay’s Ross Memorial Hospital, for instance. 
 
As for a timeline, Scott said that is not completely clear, but said the complete transformation will take a few years.  
 
At HHHS, CEO Carolyn Plummer said the organization’s model seems to fit well within the system the province is enacting. 
 
“Although
it is still too soon to know what impact this will have specifically on
HHHS, the ministry’s proposed health team approach appears to align
well with the health hub approach we have taken,” Plummer said in an
email to the Times. “We have already integrated hospital, long-term
care, community support services, and mental health services, and HHHS
already works in partnership with Home and Community Care, as well as
primary care providers at the Haliburton Highlands Family Health team.
We also have strong partnerships with other larger health centres in the
broader region, which help us facilitate access to services for people
in Haliburton County. 
 
“I’m
pleased to see the emphasis the ministry has placed on helping people
to navigate the health system, as this has been a focus of ours as well
over the past few years. I’m proud of the strategic goals we have
established as an organization and pleased to see how well they align
with the ministry’s vision.” 
 
“It
is also too soon to know what impact the super agency – Ontario Health –
will have,” Plummer added. “We currently work closely with the Central
East LHIN, as well as others included in the proposed agency such as
Ornge, Cancer Care Ontario, and Health Quality Ontario; we will be
watching closely over the coming weeks to learn more about how the
proposed changes will be implemented and how they will affect us.” 
 
In
an email, HHHS board chairman Jeff Gollob told the Times, “It is just
too soon to be able to assess the practical impact of the changes,
particularly in terms of the trickle-down effect at a local level, and
how this might impact HHHS. There are many details still to be filled
in.”