The province of Ontario has begun the process of reorganizing health care.
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care said Wednesday morning that it is eliminating a total of 825 positions as part of its efforts to direct health care funding from administration to patient care.
Through this, the six health agencies in Ontario and the province's 14 LHIN's will fold under the umbrella of Ontario Health.
Ministry spokesman Travis Kann confirmed that layoff notices across those LHINs and agencies are being sent out, though it is the hope that not all of those issued layoff notices will lose their jobs.
"Across the six health agencies and 14 LHINs that are being reorganized into Ontario Health, the government is eliminating 825 back-office positions, nearly half of which are currently vacant," Kann said in an email to BlackburnNews.com. "As a result, only 416 back-office positions that are currently filled will be impacted. None of the impacted positions provides direct patient care. Examples of duplication include positions in communications, planning, data analytics and financial services."
The ministry said by doing this, it hopes to eliminate a quarter of a billion dollars in expenses, with those being the equivalent of annual funding for 700 hospital beds or 6,500 long-term care beds.
Ontario Health Minister and Deputy Premier Christine Elliott said health care in the province could no longer follow the practice of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing.
"With each of these agencies having their own administrative and back-office supports, we are needlessly duplicating operations and spending money that we desperately need to pay for and enhance direct patient care," said Elliott in a media release. "These agencies often work toward separate visions, following their own distinct work plans, and are not well coordinated around a unified vision for patient care."
The Erie St-Clair LHIN covers health care in Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Sarnia-Lambton. The Southwest LHIN covers London-Middlesex, Elgin, Oxford, Huron-Perth, and Grey-Bruce.
Elliott understands the issuing of layoff notices will cause some anxiety and worry among Ministry employees, but she is hoping to keep any mandatory job losses to a minimum.
"We understand that our plan will impact individuals' lives," said Elliott. "That's why we have asked agencies to responsibly avoid filling vacant positions and accept early retirements to minimize the impact of the reorganization into Ontario Health. We are eliminating duplicative administration, and redirecting those savings to direct patient care. We can all agree that funding frontline services instead of duplicated administration will do more good for Ontarians and is a far better use of health care dollars."
The government also said that the money saved from this restructuring would result in the following:
- An additional $384 million to fund hospital operations
- More funding to create 15,000 long-term care beds over the next five years
- An additional $267 million in funding for home and community care
- About $90 million in financing for a new dental program for low-income seniors
“It’s terribly written, there’s nothing that meets the public interest in it. We’re calling for its repeal, and we’ve almost never done that in our history,” Mehra said.
The reaction has been swift as well at Queen's Park from the Official Opposition. Davenport MPP Marit Stiles of the NDP isn't buying the Ford government's contention that patient care will be left alone.
"When Doug Ford said no one would lose their job, he was making stuff up," said Stiles. "And now, here he goes again, pretending that he can fire hundreds of health care workers without hurting patients. Health care in Ontario was left hanging by a thread by Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals, and Doug Ford is now cutting the thread. That leaves us all worried that the hallway medicine crisis, the long waits, and the troubles in Ontario's health care system are going to go from bad to worse."