POSTED JULY 2010
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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POSTED: MAY 2010
Huron
Perth Healthcare
Alliance to Launch Community Engagement Process - COMPLETED MAY 2010 PLEASE SEE LINKS TO INFORMATION BELOW
Looking towards the future was the theme of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA), Annual General Meeting, as Board Chair Leslie Showers and CEO
Andrew Williams rolled out the broad strokes of a comprehensive process of visioning, research and collaboration, and community engagement.
“The status quo is simply not sustainable,” said Board Chair Leslie Showers. “While responding to today’s healthcare needs will continue to be our top priority, we also have a responsibility to make decisions today that will help us continue to respond to what will be very different healthcare needs into the future,” Showers stated.
“The Healthcare System has 10 Years to Get It Right,” said David Foot, famous demographer and Author of Boom, Bust and Echo in a recent message to an audience of healthcare supporters. This truly resonates with HPHA. Within the next ten years as baby boomers age, a dramatic increase in Pneumonia, cerebrovascular disease, unintentional falls, and Alzheimer’s will put tremendous pressures on the demand for hospital care. This will be exasperated by an even further depleted healthcare workforce.
The HPHA’s plan for the future, called VISION 2013, has a number of key areas of focus including: establishing Centres of Specialty; re-distributing beds to strengthen sites and to increase Stratford’s acute care capacity; maintaining 4 Emergency Departments (ED) however assessing ED hours of operation in St. Marys; assessing ED’s in Clinton and Seaforth in conjunction with the Southwest Local Health Integration Networks Emergency Department Human Resources Study; reducing service duplication across sites; repatriating patients back to Huron and Perth who currently receive care elsewhere; and, introducing new services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Beds and an MRI.
The main outcome for this process is, “four viable and strengthened sites, ready to meet the health care needs of our region according to Mr. Williams. The process must also;
- be clinically sound—health and safety of patients paramount
- create an environment that will be more appealing for recruitment
- be grounded by extensive physician consultation and support.
As outlined in
Dr. Laurel Moore’s Chief of Staff Report, “Involvement in the Vision 2013 process over the past year has seen physicians from all communities coming together with managers and administrators to plan for the future, given the shifting landscape in healthcare and the human resource challenges.”
“We have felt first hand the effects of a nation-wide shortage of nurses. This is a trend that will be with us for some time and it spurs us on to use all the creative problem solving we can muster to continue to provide outstanding healthcare for our region. It has brought us together across the four communities to look at the present and the future,” said Dr. Moore.
Extensive engagement internally with staff, with community partners and the public is an essential element in the Visioning process, said Mr. Williams. “We want to ensure as much transparency as possible and we will provide a number of different opportunities for individuals, groups and organizations to contribute to the process,” he said.
The full presentation from the Annual General Meeting can be viewed by clicking this link Vision 2013 Update.
For further information, contact
Andrew Williams, CEO, Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance at mailto:andrew.williams@hpha.ca and 519-272-8202.
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