Ontario Health Team application reveals complexities in running new system: Bob Bell
2019-10-17 from thestar.com
Enacted earlier this year by the Ford government, the People’s Health Care Act started the most radical changes in the history of Ontario’s health system. The act eliminated Cancer Care Ontario, Trillium Gift of Life and 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and created one Ontario Health agency to govern the province’s health system.
It also initiated the development of 50 to 70 Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). Reviewing the first proposals for OHTs offers an opportunity to evaluate the potential benefits and risks of the People’s Health Care Act.
One of the first applications for an OHT to be publicly posted comes from North Toronto.
The application engenders admiration for the teams developing the proposal. However, it also raises questions about whether the structural disruption created by the Peoples’ Health Act is necessary to improve Ontario health care, concern about community engagement in governance of OHTs and questions about the provincial resources needed for OHT success.
In proposing to improve care for their patients, the North Toronto OHT partners (which include hospitals, community service providers, home-care companies and primary care groups) reasonably decided to focus on improving integration of services for 10,000 seniors with complex health problems. This population has long been a focus for their teams within collaborative structures called Health Links. Health Links were established under the LHIN system more than five years ago with the goal of better integrating care for complex patients.
Under the prior system, North Toronto partners developed a variety of resources to support primary care providers in caring for these complex patients. These resources are well described in the application. The initiatives were established under the Toronto LHIN and will provide the foundation for improvement in the new OHT. The partners also suggest providing system navigators for the most complex seniors — an initiative that was often undertaken by Health Links.
All of these services and resources were developed long before the Peoples’ Health Act.
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