There’s got to be a morning after.
Tim Hudak has announced he is stepping down and the Kathleen Wynne Liberals now have a majority parliament.
So what happens now?
There are several outstanding issues in health care.
The first is the fate of the Local Health Integration Networks. The standing committee charged with conducting the legislated review travelled the province holding hearings over the winter. Despite Tim Hudak’s promise to replace them with “health hubs,” there was little interest in the issue on the campaign trail. The likely result will be some minor tinkering and they will soldier on. After eight years the LHINs appear to have found their legs although clearly there are still some community members who feel left out of the process. Last year’s five per cent cut to their budgets likely didn’t help the LHINs connect with those communities.
We’ve noticed that despite a province-wide Ontario Health Coalition campaign opposing the siphoning off of hospital services to private clinics, the province is moving forward with competitions to auction cataract surgeries, endoscopies and other diagnostic services. The Windsor Regional Hospital is already in one of these competitions with the private MyHealth Vision Care. MyHealth manages 16 Independent Health Facilities in Ontario and say they are developing 18 more. The hospital is the midst of capital planning for a new outpatient facility. Being caught in these kind of arbitrary competitions makes it difficult to plan. CEO David Musyj told the Windsor Star that the cataract decision will have an effect on the entire health system. “We don’t want to do something prematurely that negatively impacts what we’re trying to create into the future for the community.” The Wynne government could find themselves in a considerable battle over this issue. The Ontario Health Coalition have collected nearly 100,000 postcards from Ontarians who don’t want to see private clinics take over this work. They plan to present the postcards to Queen’s Park soon.
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