Chatham-Kent is leading the way when it comes to more streamlined health care in Ontario.
The province officially announced on Saturday that a local bid for an OHT has been approved – one of the first 24 to be given the green light across the province.
Steering committee co-chair Lori Marshall says the CK-OHT is very much a made in Chatham-Kent program.
“One of the things I would say the government has done is to really invite communities to design the services and systems they think is going to best meet the needs of their own population, versus telling us what to do,” Marshall says. “This has really been a wonderful invitation for us to come together as organizations and work through that together.”
15 local organizations, including the CKHA, family health teams, CK Hospice, Canadian Mental Health, Alzheimer’s Society of CK, and others.
Marshall says it puts a major focus on transitions in patient care.
“It’s about recognizing that someone probably has needs of multiple different organizations and right now we’re very much siloed,” Marshall explains. “The focus is on the system navigation and how do we help people move from one organization to another, make sure that’s seamless from the patient’s perspective.”
The CK-OHT officially launch on April 1st with the first phase focusing on care for those 55 or older with chronic illnesses.
At this point, no additional provincial funding has been attached to the plans.