Ontario said to be ready to abolish community care access centres

TORONTO | Speculation is growing that the Ontario government is planning to do away with its network of 14 community care access centres (CCACs), which oversee community and home care in the province.Speaking at the Ontario Hospital Association’s HealthAchieve conference in early November, Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins said the time was right to look at major structural changes to the healthcare system. Although he did not specifically say that CCACs were to be scrapped, his remarks are being interpreted in that light.“Observers reading between the lines of his speech and senior officials in the health system say he is laying the groundwork to dismantle the centres,” states a news story in the Toronto Star.Hoskins told the Star that “all options are on the table.”See related articles:RNAO says phase out CCACs—but strong rebuff by CCAC followsMediation fails for 10 Ontario Community Care Access CentresEstablished by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in 1996, the CCACs are intended to help seniors, people with disabilities and those who need healthcare services to live independently at home or apply for admission to care programs or facilities.Each CCAC serves a distinct region, and those regions share geographic boundaries with the province’s 14 local health integration networks (LHINs), which were created in 2007.Critics say there is unnecessary overlap between the CCACs and the LHINs, which contributes to costly administrative duplication and inefficiency for the healthcare system as a whole.In October 2012, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario issued a report on enhancing community care that recommended phasing out CCACs to eliminate structural duplication.In September 2015, a special report on CCACs from Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk detailed numerous concerns, including the finding that only 61% of expenditures on the centres is spent on “actual face-to-face treatment of patients.”Following Dr. Hoskins’s speech at HealthAchieve, David Musyj, president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, told the Windsor Star it would be hard not to conclude from the minister’s comments that the CCACs are to be integrated with the LHINs.“I can see the overall bigger rationale, which is, ‘How can we possibly reduce bureaucracy?' We have a LHIN and we have a CCAC. Is there a way they could be one?” Musyj is quoted as saying.The total annual cost of the CCACs is about $2.4 billion, or 5% of the province’s total healthcare spending, according to the auditor general, and of the 6,630 people they employ full-time, most work in areas such as care co-ordination, information technology, and administration. Read more about CCACs at http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/contact/ccac/

Ontario said to be ready to abolish community care access centres

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics

Business Topic