NEWMARKET – Ontario is making major investments to expand home and community care at Southlake Regional Health Centre as part of the province’s plan to end hallway health care and build more capacity in York Region.
Today, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, was joined by Robin Martin, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health, at Southlake Regional Health Centre to announce that Ontario is investing more than $5.1 million to expand home and community care services for the people of York Region.
“Expanding home and community care is a critical part of our plan to end hallway health care,” said Elliott. “By making these significant investments at Southlake and supporting partnerships between home and community care providers and busy hospitals, patients will experience quicker transitions between receiving hospital care and returning home with the appropriate support they need to properly recover. These investments will also ensure that more hospital beds are available for those who need them.”
This investment will support the Southlake Geriatric Alternate Level of Care Reduction Program, which helps to tackle the issue of hallway health care. The funding will support:
- Southlake@home, a home and community care program providing patients who have completed a hospital stay in acute care with an intensive transitional plan of care to ensure their safe return home.
- A Geriatric Admission Diversion Clinic, which will be open seven days a week and enable appropriate patients with geriatric care needs to be diverted from the Southlake emergency department to receive treatment.
“Southlake has been experiencing higher-than-average rates of patient care in unconventional spaces,” added Elliott. “By investing in targeted partnerships between hospitals and home and community care providers in the region, we can tackle the challenge of hallway health care head on to ensure patients are receiving the high-quality care they expect and deserve.”
The $5.1 million being invested in Southlake is part of the government’s overall investment of $45 million more this year in targeted innovative integrated care models intended to immediately support ending hallway health care in high-need areas. Overall, the government is investing an additional $155 million this year to expand home and community care across Ontario.
“We know that most of the solutions to end hallway health care won’t be found in hospitals,” said Arden Krystal, President and CEO, Southlake Regional Health Centre. “We need to continue partnering with community providers, recoup capacity in our hospitals so that they can focus on the services we were designed to provide, and direct new resources to the community where they will have a bigger impact. Strategic investments, like those announced today, enable us to work directly with homecare organizations and long-term care providers. This will have a significant impact in reducing overcrowding at Southlake and allow patients to receive high-quality care in more appropriate settings.”
Quick Facts
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The 2019 budget committed $124 million in home care and $20 million in community care. The government is providing an additional $11 million for home and community care, bringing the total new investment to $155 million.
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This includes $45 million in new funding for targeted innovative integrated care models. The government is also investing $63 million in existing integrated care models.
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