Skip to main content

Will CCACs survive the election of a Progressive Conservative government?

Ontario's 14 Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) have come out with a new report just before the provincial election.  They make five recommendations, notably including a plea for their continued existence and a call for better alignment and formalized relationships between public health, primary care, CCACs, and Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).

The call for recognition of the important role of CCACs is hardly surprising: their sister organizations, LHINs, play a somewhat similar role and they have been sharply attacked, with the Progressive Conservatives damning the LHINs as an ineffective and costly layer of government bureaucracy.  Instead the CCACs insist their role in case management provides a vital "neutral broker" in the health care system, and is not simply another layer of administration.

The call for better alignment and a formal relationship is hardly relevant to the LHIN--CCAC relationship -- the CCACs were already restructured to align with the LHINs and the relationship is pretty darn formal: the LHINs fund the CCACs.  The call for alignment is however relevant to public health -- currently public health is a municipal responsibility and definitely not aligned on a geographic basis with the CCACs or the LHINs.

As the CCACs and LHINs do not correspond with any municipal boundaries, geographic realignment would have a major impact on bargaining unit structure.

Notably, the CCACs don't say a word about the requirement of CCACs to contract out home care services-- the highly controversial system of so-called "competitive bidding" that has been suspended for the last six (almost seven) years due to its many problems.

No one knows if the Liberals or PCs will try to bring compulsory contracting back after the election, so the CCAC silence is interesting.  CUPE and other community groups have called for an end of compulsory contracting out -- something that could see an expanded role for CCAC-like bodies, once the for-profit providers are disposed of.

The five CCAC recommendations are:


  • Continued investment in home and community care as a cost effective strategy that ensures Ontarians receive the right care at the right time in the right place.
  • Better alignment and formalized relationships between primary care, public health, CCACs and Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to enable more consistent and effective integrated approaches to chronic disease prevention, management and care across the continuum.
  • Ongoing investment in innovative care delivery that promote a person’s ability to self manage their own illnesses and chronic diseases.
  • Continued recognition of the important role of the CCACs to connect people with health  care services to keep them healthy and independent in the home and community.
  • The rapid implementation and broad application of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s Excellent Care for All Act to all health care providers.

The report is available by clicking here.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding:  There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities).    For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year.   But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending.  Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th
Post a Comment
Read more

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding :  While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments.  In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS.  But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery :  Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada.   But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily  Medavie,  a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit.  Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance.  It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees.  It now a
Post a Comment
Read more