For Immediate Release

Monday, February 06, 2006

GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance Offers Improvements to Bill 36 and Raises Concerns About LHINs Impacting Local Access to Hospital Care in the GTA/905  

Toronto:  The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance called on the Government of Ontario to amend Bill 36, the Local Health System Integration Act, 2005, so that local health integration networks (LHINs) will result in improved access to health care services in the four GTA/905 regions of Halton, Peel, Durham and York.

 At Bill 36 public hearings today, the Alliance tabled ten key amendments to ensure that LHINs are about timely access to health care services and not just about merging health care services.  The Alliance believes that LHINs should try to maximize local access to health care services, LHIN decisions should be made by board members who live in the communities served by the LHIN and that LHINs must be fairly funded based on the population size and health care needs of LHIN residents.

 “We’re concerned that Bill 36, as currently worded, could mean less local access to health care services in the GTA/905 rather than better access”, said Kirk Corkery, Chair of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance.  “Bill 36 has to be more than transferring, merging, amalgamating or ordering health care providers to cease operating.  Bill 36 must first and foremost be about patients and better access to health care services and better access for most services within their own LHIN”

 Other amendments recommended by the Alliance include:

o       The Minister developing a provincial strategic health care plan in consultation with Ontarians based on encouraging timely access to care within a LHIN

o       Defining “public interest” in the legislation

o       Providing for an open, fair and transparent process for stakeholder involvement when LHINs make decisions to transfer, merge, or amalgamate health care services. 

 “There needs to be a balance between “local” and “integration” in local health integration networks”, added Tariq Asmi, Executive Director of the GTA/9054 Healthcare Alliance.  “Without this balance, given the current lack of health care funding to support growth in the GTA/905, it could mean that the GTA/905 LHINs may experience a disproportionate pressure to transfer, merge, or amalgamate health care services”,

 The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is the collective voice of acute care and mental health hospitals across the GTA/905 region - from Oshawa to Burlington and north to Newmarket.  Alliance hospitals provide care in communities that represent more than 25 per cent of Ontario's population.  The GTA/905 area is the fastest growing region in Ontario, increasing by more than 100,000 new residents annually and comprising more than 50 per cent of Ontario's annual population growth.  The GTA/905 Alliance represents the more than three million residents in the region to ensure that they get better care close to home.

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