'Smarter' health spending needed, minister says

Although the province has already introduced its own action plan to reform the health care system, Health and Long-Term Care Minister Deb Matthews said she'll consider the recommendations outlined in the Don Drummond report.

“There are other recommendations in (the Drummond report) that are not in our action plan,” Matthews said, speaking to reporters Feb. 24 after a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Bryston's on the Park in Copper Cliff.

“Our bottom line is if it's better patient care and better value for money, then we are very interested in pursuing it.”

Matthews released Ontario's Action Plan for Health Care Feb. 6, a little more than a week before the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services, led by economist Don Drummond, released its report.

Many of the recommendations in the Drummond report focus on the health care system, which currently costs Ontario taxpayers $47.1 billion a year.

Matthews made it clear the government will decide which of Drummond's recommendations will be implemented.

She told the roughly 100 people gathered at the event that the province's health care system has improved in many areas over the past several years, but there's still many changes which could be made.

The province's $16 billion deficit and the cost pressures relating to an ageing population are the two main factors driving health care reform, Matthews said.
“Our government is of one mind on this issue,” she said.

“We are determined to do what we need to do to keep improving quality of care, and access to it. We also know that we cannot keep spending our our health dollars the way we have been. We need to get smarter about how we spend our health care dollars.”

Given the increasing health needs of Ontario's ageing population, if spending patterns were to stay the same, by 2036 the province would have to spend an additional $24 billion a year on health care, Matthews said.

“We'd have to increase our budget by 50 per cent just to do what we do now,” she said.

Matthews brought those at the luncheon through the main aspects of the province's health care action plan, which she calls “obsessively patient-centred.”

“It will invest dollars where patients need them most,” she said.

The first point in that plan is keeping Ontario healthy, Matthews said. “We want better health, not better health care,” she said.

She outlined a number of initiatives, ranging from getting people to participate in health screening, to smoking cessation initiatives to a promise to reduce childhood obesity rates by 20 per cent over the next five years.

“Childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed,” Matthews said. “You know that obesity today leads to heart disease and diabetes down the road, which can be fatal. We're not going to let that happen, not with our kids.

“We will create a council on childhood obesity, and its goal will be to reduce the rate of childhood obesity by 20 per cent in five years. That is an ambitious goal, but it's a goal that reflects the urgency of the situation.”

The next point in the plan is faster access to stronger family health care.

One way the province is going to work towards this goal is to bring this type of care under the umbrellas of the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), she said.

“The LHINS are the air traffic controllers of our health care system,” Matthews said.

“When they can plan primary health care in our community, they can improve access to care, and that will help save money.”

She told reporters she is “pleased” with the reaction she's been receiving from family physicians on the issue.

“Family physicians know that we could do a better job if they were part of the system,” she said. “They don't want to be outside the system anymore.”

Matthews said patients should also have more access to family care providers in general, but also “when they need them” so they don't end up in the emergency room.

“We think patients should have more access to after-hours care and same day or next day appointments.”

The third point in the action plan is access to the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

She said the right care refers to patients receiving treatment that is “evidence-based” at all times. “We will fund drugs only when evidence tells us they benefit patients,” Matthews said.

In some cases, care at the right time means “early interventions,” Matthews said.

“Nowhere is early intervention more important than in mental health,” she said.

“Seventy per cent of mental health problems first appear in childhood and adolescence. That's why we're bringing new focus on childhood mental health.”

 

Early interventions are also important to effectively treating chronic diseases such as diabetes. “But acting earlier, you're able to prevent the worst effects of the disease.”

Care in the right place, especially for seniors, often means receiving care in their own homes, Matthews said.

The province will fund “three million more hours of personal support worker hours to help seniors with their daily needs,” and allow family members to take up to eight weeks off to care for seniors, amongst other initiatives, Matthews said.

She also said some procedures will be moved out of hospitals into “specialized, not-for-profit clinics, but only if they can demonstrate that they can provide high-quality care at a lower cost.”

“This will free up hospital operating rooms to do more procedures that need to be done in a hospital,” she said.

Nickel Belt NDP MPP and health and long-term care critic France Gélinas, along with Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, were among those attending the event.

Before her speech, Matthews said she thought it was “wonderful” that Gélinas was there, but joked that she said “oh no” when told there was going to be a question period after the event.

Sudbury is actually ahead of the wave when it comes to the province's health care action plan, Gélinas told Northern Life after the event.

“A lot of those initiatives have been put in place in Sudbury,” she said.

However, even though these initiatives have been put in place, “we continue to struggle,” Gélinas said.

She said many people who visit her office say they can't find a family doctor. As well, the wait times in Health Sciences North's emergency room are “through the roof,” she said.

“But yet, we have put into action a lot of what she's talking about in the action plan. It leads me to believe that it was not quite enough to help Sudbury meet its challenges.”

Posted by Heidi Ulrichsen