Ontario modernizing delivery of Home and Community Care

Join Deputy Minister Angus for an audio webinar Town Hall

As part of the province's comprehensive plan to build healthier communities and end hallway health care, Ontario is modernizing the delivery of home and community care services by bringing an outdated system into the 21st century.

Today, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, was at Michael Garron Hospital, a member of the East Toronto Health Partners Ontario Health Team, to announce Ontario's plan to enable integrated and innovative models of home and community care through the introduction of the.

If passed, this legislation would enable Ontarians to have the integrated health care that patients and families have been telling us they need.

This legislation would allow Ontario Health Teams to deliver more innovative models of home and community care, where patients would benefit from primary care, hospitals, home and community care, and long-term care providers being able to collaborate to provide care that best meets individual care needs.

The legislation would remove long-standing barriers and outdated rules that have kept home and community care in a silo within the health care system and made it difficult for patients to navigate the system. At the same time, the new framework would maintain key elements of the home and community care program to ensure ongoing stability of services and clarity for clients and families.

As these thoughtful but long overdue changes are implemented, there will be no disruptions in patient care. To ensure the ongoing stability of services while home and community care transitions into Ontario Health Teams, Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) will be refocused into interim and transitional organizations with a singular mandate of delivering home and community care, as well as long-term care home placement. To reflect this focused mandate, they will be rebranded as Home and Community Care Support Services.

During the transition, patients and caregivers will continue to access home and community care services in the same way and use the same contacts. Read the backgrounder.

Deputy Minister of Health, Helen Angus will be hosting an audio webinar town hall on February 25, 2020 from 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm to provide additional details, followed by a Q & A session.

Note: Access to the webinar is no longer available.

Please feel free to forward to your colleagues. We are looking forward to your participation.