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Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs)

5 Oct 06 -- On September 28, 2006, the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) sent a submission on the proposed regulation regarding the Health Professionals Advisory Committee. Download the full text of the submission here (Adobe Acrobat Reader Required).

ONA hopes to see our recommended clarifications being incorporated into the regulations.

The Ontario government has passed health care legislation that ONA believes will diminish access to local health care services and threaten stability for thousands of health care workers, open the door for private, for-profit corporations, and reduce local control.

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Among ONA's Concerns:

  • Some health services are excluded from the legislation (i.e., physicians, public health, independent health facilities), making it impossible to coordinate services across a Local Health Integration Network.
  • There is no provision for consultation on the development of a provincial strategic health plan. ONA is calling for a Green Paper on this issue.
  • The legislation has no provision for health human resources planning and it fails to protect the rights of health care professionals during restructuring.
  • There is no provision for LHINs to formally collaborate with the community and health care workers in establishing LHINs services plans.
  • There is no provision for ensuring input from the community and front-line workers into integration and funding decisions.
  • The legislation fails to provide meaningful oversight of integration and funding decisions, which will have an enormous impact on both patients and health care workers.
  • There is a lack of accountability into the ongoing provision of health care services.
  • The legislation fails to identify the public interest criteria on which funding and integration decisions will be made.
  • The legislation fails to protect medicare, which can only be achieved through ensuring access for patients to a full continuum of care within a public delivery model for health care in Ontario .
  • The legislation promotes two-tier medicine, extra billing and user fees by allowing for the transfer of services (currently being publicly funded) to for-profit providers.
  • The legislation allows for the contracting out of non-clinical services, which impacts on patient care and the health and safety of health care workers.

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