In January 2012, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Deb Matthews (the "Minister"), released Ontario's Action Plan to Transform Health Care (the "Action Plan").  At the time of its release, the Minister committed to reporting back in one year on the results and progress made on the Action Plan.

In a speech given to the Canadian Club in Toronto on January 16th, the Minister released Ontario's Action Plan for Health Care: One-year Progress Report (the "Progress Report"). According to the Progress Report, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (the "Ministry") has delivered on many commitments in the Action Plan including:

  • Moving Procedures into the Community by opening two new midwife-led birthing centres;
  • Expanded Scopes of Practice by giving pharmacists the authority to administer flu vaccines, adapt existing prescriptions and prescribe smoking cessation drugs;
  • Funding Reform by implementation of a "Quality-Based Procedures" funding formula that bases hospital funding for specific procedures on the number of patients treated, efficiency and best practices; and
  • Faster Access and Focus on Quality in Family Health Care by enhancing benefits to patients under the negotiated two-year Physicians' Service Agreement1.

Future Commitments

The Progress Report referenced the new Health Links Program that was launched late last year. The purpose of the Health Links Program is to co-ordinate the care of seniors and other high-needs patients between different health care providers and to develop personalized care plans.  There are 19 early adopter Health Links that will be submitting business plans to the Ministry in the coming weeks.

In her speech, the Minister committed to funding stroke treatment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, systems chemotherapy, coronary artery disease with surgical intervention and colonoscopies based on the "Quality-Based Procedures" model.

The Minister further committed to moving more procedures out of hospitals and into specialized clinics. This includes a request for proposal that will be sent out province-wide seeking an expansion of specialized clinics for cataract surgeries.  Later this year and into next year will be other requests for proposals for procedures including dialysis, hip and knee surgery, MRIs and colonoscopies. The services that will be outsourced to specialized clinics will still be covered by OHIP to the extent that those services were insured while they were being performed in hospitals.

Other Future Commitments

  • Reduce childhood obesity by 20% over the next 5 years;
  • Reduce youth smoking and tanning by minors;
  • Implement the government's "Senior's Strategy" 2; and
  • With Cancer Care Ontario, create an online tool to assess an individual's cancer risks and to identify if an individual requires genetic testing, prevention, support or screening.

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Footnotes

1.The Progress Reports states that, among other things, the new Physicians Services Agreement will ensure (1) better access to virtual care through telemedicine initiatives, e-consults and virtual connections between family doctors and specialists; (2) expansion of quality improvement plans to primary care; and (3) increasing after-hours access to family health care providers.

2.In developing the Seniors Strategy the Ministry is relying on a number of recommendations from Dr. Sinha's report, "Living Longer, Living Well". 

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