A Plan for Building a Stronger Health System For You!

The Board of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone for your past and continued participation in our community engagement activities regarding VISION 2013 – a plan to strengthen hospital-based services for the residents of Huron and Perth Counties. Over the past few months we have spoken with hundreds of people and heard your feedback on VISION 2013 through surveys, Town Halls, Community Workshops and formal and informal presentations and conversations.  As a result, we believe we have the foundation for building a stronger healthcare system amongst our four hospital sites that will best serve the needs of all of our patients, both now and well into the future. 

Why VISION 2013?

VISION 2013 has been developed in light of a number of key factors and issues affecting the delivery of health care, not only at HPHA, but across the province.  These factors require that we be proactive and lead the change necessary to provide Excellent Care For All.

The delivery of health care has changed dramatically in recent years in a number of ways:

• There aren’t enough physicians, nurses and other health care professionals. This is not just a “local” problem or a “HPHA” problem.  All hospitals are competing for the same recruits and this situation will worsen as doctors and nurses retire.  This means that we have to think differently about how we deliver health care. 
  
  
• The length of hospital stays has decreased significantly due to new treatments, state-of-the-art diagnostic technology, medicines and the availability of community-based care. 
  
  
• The baby boomers are aging. This has a huge, two-fold impact on our health care system. First, as people get older, they generally use the health care system more than they ever did.  Secondly, the number of new health care graduates is fewer than the retiring “boomers” health care providers.
  
  
• The need for new and enhanced local services. Our plan calls for the addition of new and enhanced services such as MRI and child and adolescent mental health beds which will help to address identified service gaps in our area.
  
  
• The costs of health care are skyrocketing at an unsustainable rate.  Ontario spends more than $45 billion annually on health care, which represents nearly half of the entire Provincial budget.  Everyone involved in the planning and delivery of care must work together to apply resources as effectively as possible.

Next Steps

Throughout the planning process the South West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has been kept informed of our progress and community engagement activities. 

The Vision 2013 recommendations that were approved by the HPHA Board on June 3, 2010 were presented to the LHIN Board for information purposes on July 14th.These recommendations will now be submitted to the South West LHIN as a formal Notice of Integration for their consideration. Under the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006 (LHSIA), these recommendations are considered to be an integration as they include “coordination of services and interactions; transferring, merging or amalgamating services, operations or entities”.   The South West LHIN staff will conduct a comprehensive review of the information submitted and provide the LHIN Board with a written report to assist the Board in its decision-making. 

Keeping You Informed

We are committed to continuing to provide accurate information to all of our stakeholders.   We will continue a transparent, participative and respectful planning process. We will keep you informed of progress and changes through our website at www.hpha.ca, our regular Community Reports and special-purpose communications, such as this one. You are also welcome to contact either Andrew Williams or Leslie Showers with your questions or comments. 

Leslie Showers, Board Chair                                                                  Andrew Williams, CEO
leslie.showers@investorsgroup.com                                                     andrew.williams@hpha.ca
519-284-2629                                                                                          519-272-8202     

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The Proposed new model includes: developing "Centres of Speciality" at each of the four Alliance sites (Ambulatory Surgery in Clinton, Rehabilitation and Alternate Level of Care in Seaforth and St. Marys, and Acute Care in Stratford). maintaining some acute care at all four Alliance sites, maintaining four Emergency Departments, yet assessing the hours of operation in St. Marys and assessing the Emergency Departments in Seaforth and Clinton in conjuction with the Southwest Local Health Integration Network's Emergency Department Human Resources Study, introducing new services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health and adding a new Magnetic Resonance Unit (MRI)

Dr. Laurel Moore, HPHA Chief of Staff "Physicians have been involved in the VISION 2013 process for more than a year, coming together with managers and administrators to plan for the future. We've alredy made significant headway, strengthening our collaboration and cooperation to the betterment of patient care. By working together we can seek creative solutions to help us deal with change, address some of our biggest challenges and continue to focus on our number one priority- OUR PATIENTS."

Leslie Showers, HPHA Board Chair "We are committeed to designing a delivery model that maintains emergency care at four sites while making the best use of our health care professionals, optimizing their scope of practice and above all, ensures that patients who need emergency care have access to a wide range of medical and diagnostic services. To do this, we have to look at things that impact on our ability to deliver on this commitment and that includes hours of operation"

Andrew Williams, CEO HPHA "Stronger Healthcare tomorrow will only come from making thoughtful, and sometimes challenging decisions today"

VISION 2013 PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS/COMMUNICATION

• A series of community meetings took place in August 2009
• Our Community Survey was made available to the public
• A telephone survey was conducted in December 2009 to view the results please click on the link Telephone survey results
• Additional community meetings and town hall discussions took place in Huron & Perth Counties in May 2010 - to view the town hall meeting presentation click on the link Town Hall Meetings Presentation and Summary Report on Community Talks

• We distributed our December'09 Community Report focusing on our Local Advistory Committees and the Questions & Answers you asked us from our Community Survey and Engagement Workshops. Please click on the following link to read more VISION 2013 Community Report December 2009

Please feel free to further direct your concerns/questions to your local advisory committee members

YOUR LAC MEMBERS

CLINTON

Greg Stewart CHAIR,  Joan Addison, Dr. Maarten Bokhout, Linda Dunford, Paul Fulmer, David Overboe, Olga Palmer, Darren Stevenson

ST. MARYS

Elizabeth Hill CHAIR, Brendan Ginty, Mark Dickey, Marg Edgar, Betty Finnie, Marilyn Haywood, Dr. Fred Jewson, Colin Pearson, Rev. Dr. Dalice Sim, Andreas Thiel, Irene Wortley

SEAFORTH

Vacant - CHAIR, Tim Cunningham, Dr. Jason Datema, Rudy Jansen, Angela Kyveris, Kay Mailloux, Kerri­Ann O'Rourke, Frances Teatero, Tony VandenHengel

STRATFORD

Michael McKenna CHAIR, Phil Buxton, Sam Cherian, Lynne McDonald, Mary McTavish, Dr. Laurel Moore, Rick Orr

General HPHA enquiries can be directed to Michelle Jones at 519-272-8210 Ext. 2423 or michelle.jones@hpha.ca 

We also welcome your feedback on VISION 2013 at anytime - please complete this form VISION 2013 Feedback Form