Proposed Ontario Health Team for Northumberland one of 31 teams in the province selected to move forward
In an email notification received earlier today, the Ministry of Health advised that the local proposal to form an Ontario Health Team for Northumberland has moved to the next stage, with the planning committee now invited to submit a full application. The Northumberland application was one of 31 approved to move to this next step out of over 150 applications submitted.
Building on a strong history of local collaboration to deliver coordinated care for the community, health system stakeholders in Northumberland partnered on an application to form an Ontario Health Team (OHT) following a call for interest this spring.
The provincial government has introduced OHTs as a new model of health care delivery, intended to improve the coordination of care and services for patients and their families/caregivers. The aim is to better connect the often disparate parts of the health system by bringing together patients/residents, families, communities, providers and system leaders as one team, to deliver a coordinated continuum of care to people in a defined geographic area. The members of the teams, even if in different organizations or physical locations, will work together toward common goals for strengthening local services.
In response to the government’s April 2019 call for interest to form an OHT, local health system stakeholders established an Ontario Health Team of Northumberland Collaborative Planning Committee to submit the required self-assessment by May 15th. This Planning Committee has continued to meet and expand, with the group now including:
- Local patients/caregivers
- Local primary care physicians
- Alderville First Nation
- Alzheimer Society – Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland & Haliburton
- Campbellford Memorial Hospital
- Community Care Northumberland
- Community Health Centres of Northumberland
- Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit
- Lakeview Family Health Team
- Local community mental health and addiction services
- Local home and community care providers
- Northumberland County
- Northumberland Family Health Team
- Northumberland Hills Hospital
- The Bridge Hospice
- Trent Hills Family Health Team
On a webcast with applicants late this morning, Minister of Health Christine Elliott and Deputy Minister Helen Angus confirmed that over 150 OHT applications had been received during the May call, far more than initially expected and—in the Ministry’s view—a demonstration of the commitment from health care providers to work together with patients and caregivers to deliver on a vision of an integrated health care system.