Access Centre ED says LHINs a ‘sensible’ solution
'LHINs will create a real system, instead of well-intentioned people delivering services in silos'
Monday, October 25, 2004 - Roderick Benns
Local Health Integration Networks, or LHINs, being planned in Ontario are something to be pleased about, according to the executive director of the Haliburton, Northumberland and Victoria Access Centre, Fran O’Hara.

O’Hara says anything that is going to lead to better co-ordination for patients is something that should be supported.

"It’s access simplified," says O’Hara in an interview with OMNIway.

"LHINs will create a real system, instead of well-intentioned people delivering services in silos," she explains.

According to the provincial government, LHINs will enhance and support local capacity to plan, co-ordinate, integrate, and fund the delivery of health services at the community level. LHINS represents a movement, says the Province, from a collection of services to "a true health care system."

LHINs will not be providers of clinical services, though, and instead are expected to co-ordinate service delivery. That means existing provider organizations will continue to be relied upon to deliver services.

O’Hara says long-term care stands to benefit from LHINs because all the different kinds of care become integrated instead of remaining separated. "It would be a seamless system, where everyone should benefit."

The executive director says LHINs might be causing a few ripples in the health care sector, but she says this is natural in the sense that it is the introduction of something new, on a large scale.

"I think whenever there is a change people want to know more so they can buy into it. But the way the government is doing it, soliciting comments each time they make an announcement," is a good idea, she says.

The LHIN proposed for the area that encompasses Haliburton, Northumberland and Victoria is part of the largest suggested LHIN in Ontario – a massive entity that would contain 1.52 million people and stretch its reach across central Ontario and as far south as Scarborough.

O’Hara says there are pros and cons to being the largest. On the one hand, being in a smaller demographic perhaps leads to the feeling that one’s needs are not very apparent.

But on the other hand, being the largest may be a challenge in balancing social realities, she says, such as setting up a potential split between one side of the province dominated by rural, senior people and the other side with urban, younger people. "There’s almost a divide at Ajax-Pickering," she says.

O’Hara notes the boundaries are not necessarily carved in stone and that the government hints at minor boundary changes on its website.

The bottom line, says O’Hara, is the integration of LHINs will provide a meaningful framework. "It’s important and sensible change."

And, she adds, it will be up to individual communities to make it work. "It really is up to us, the people working in health services. It is our good will, our willingness to plan together" that will make this work, she says.

"I think the government has given us an opportunity, so we should be prepared to work together."