January 15, 2007

Media Release

Headwaters Health Care Centre

Under Funding in High Growth Communities Leads Headwaters to Join Healthcare Alliance

Orangeville: Headwaters Health Care Centre and the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance are pleased to announce that Headwaters Health Care Centre is joining the Healthcare Alliance.

The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is the collective voice of acute care and mental health hospitals across the High Growth Communities in the Greater Toronto Area – from Oshawa to Burlington and north to Newmarket and now across to Dufferin and Caledon .  Alliance hospitals provide care to Ontarians living in the fastest growing communities in Ontario where over a quarter of Ontarians reside and that account for more than half of Ontario ’s annual population growth. 

“The Alliance is working on behalf of Ontarians living in high population growth communities to secure needed growth funding for health care services, said Bob Baynham, CEO of Headwaters Health Care Centre.  ”Working with Alliance partners we will seek to improve local access to medical services and develop clinical services appropriate for our hospital and community. To achieve this we need the Government of Ontario to not only provide adequate hospital growth funding but also allocate provincial health care funds to the new Local Health Integration Networks on the basis of population size, growth and characteristics.”

Currently, Ontario ’s hospitals are not funded on the basis of population size and the needs of the local residents.  As a result, there are significant and growing gaps in per capita funding for hospital services in high growth regions like Dufferin-Caledon.  The per capita funding for hospital care in the Central West LHIN is $280 lower than the provincial average. This means that residents may wait longer for hospital care or by-pass their local hospital and seek care outside their communities away from the support of family and friends.

“With Dufferin and Caledon’s population growing at the rate they are today, we are facing the same pressures as other Alliance partners that are providing care in fast growing communities”, said Hon. John McDermid, Chair Headwaters Health Care Centre. “By working with other high growth hospitals and health care providers we look forward to improving local access to hospital care for the growing number of residents living in the many communities we serve.”

“The Alliance is very pleased to have Headwaters join our Alliance of hospitals”, said Kirk Corkery, Chair of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance .  “By working together, and now as part of a larger Alliance , we look forward to bringing about improvements to Ontario ’s health care system that will mean better care close to home for the residents of Dufferin and Caledon and other fast growing communities in Ontario .”

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For information contact either:

Kathryn Hunt, Communications                           Tariq Asmi, Executive Director

Headwaters Health Care Centre                           GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance

Tel: (519) 941-2702 ext. 2248                              Cell: (416) 948-2033

                                                                        Office: (416) 205-1331

Email:  khunt@headwatershealth.ca                Email: tariq.asmi@gtahealthcare.com 

Backgrounder

Dufferin and Caledon have been experiencing significant population growth. The growth in our community is among the highest growth in the province. Population growth within the Central West LHIN is one of the highest on both an absolute and age adjusted basis. Dufferin was the sixth fastest growing community in Ontario between 1996 and 2003, and Peel is the second fastest.

Projected population growth of Dufferin and Caledon

SOURCE: Ontario Ministry of Finance, 2004

There is increasing demand for our services. Young families are moving into the area and the rest of us are aging. Headwaters Health Care Centre and other health care providers in the Central West LHIN need access to more health care dollars to deal with population growth (including the population growth that has already occurred) to ensure that our community has access to the care they need close to home as our population continues to grow.

Per Capita Spending

Per capita spending in the Central West LHIN is the lowest, or among the lowest, in the province in every health sector.

*14^th ranking is lowest in the province

SOURCE: It’s About You and Your Health: Integrated Health Services Plan for the Central West Local Health Integration Network, page 9

Other Key Findings in It’s About You and Your Health: Integrated Health Services Plan for the Central West Local Health Integration Network

• Health care resources are below levels in other LHINs. The Central West LHIN has:

• The fewest number of health transfer payment agencies among the 14 LHINs

• The lowest supply per 100,000 population of specialists physicians and nurses in the province and the second lowest supply of family physicians

• Three underserviced communities (Orangeville, Shelburne and Caledon ) in terms of family physicians

• The population of seniors (65 years of age and over) is expected to grow by 54.3% for the LHIN to 2016. This is the highest among the 14 LHINs and almost 20% more than the provincial average (34.6%).

• A very high percentage of residents who receive their health services outside the LHIN (the lowest localization in the province)

• Many gaps in terms of specialized services – cancer care, cardiac care, thoracic, neurosurgery, neonatology

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