Eliminating Ontario's one-stop shop for home care is a step backward for patients

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2012 /CNW/ - Ontario's 14 Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) and the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC) disagree with the recommendations in the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario's (RNAO) discussion paper, ECCO: Enhancing Community Care for Ontarians.  The RNAO's recommendation to eliminate CCACs is not a workable policy proposal.

Last year, Ontario's CCACs served over 616,000 Ontarians with almost six million nursing visits and 20 million hours of home care.  Together with service providers, they delivered occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech language therapy, and dietician and social work services.  CCACs also supported over 40,000 people transitioning into long-term care homes, supportive housing and assisted living. The RNAO is recommending moving these responsibilities into hundreds of doctors' offices, family health clinics, nurse practitioner clinics, community health centres, Aboriginal health access centres and hospitals.

"The RNAO proposal would be a major step backward for patients.  The primary care system is already overburdened; access to doctors' offices will not be improved by loading them up with more responsibilities.  This will make patient access to home care harder, not easier," said Margaret Mottershead, OACCAC CEO. "Migrating 3,300 nurses and other health care professionals from one part of the system to another would be a complex undertaking, costing hundreds of millions to implement."

"We just don't see the people we serve in the RNAO proposal, it doesn't reflect the care we provide to thousands of clients every day," said Sandra Coleman, South West CCAC CEO.  "Our clients and their front-line care providers don't need another bureaucratic mega-restructuring.  CCACs know we can do better, but we need to work together to improve the system we've got with better integrated care centered around our clients, not decentralization on an epic scale."  She added, "Increasing efficiency, quality and access to care for our clients is our number one priority. We are continuously working to improve the way we help deliver care with our many system partners, especially to those people who need it the most."

Ontario's CCACs have been active participants in ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality care.  They are also a part of the constructive dialogue that the provincial government is undertaking as it implements its plan for the health care system.  The CCACs will continue to work to improve the system Ontario has, particularly given that it is serving patients better than ever before.

Community Care Access Centres provide services in the home and the community for more than 600,000 Ontarians annually.

About Ontario's CCACs:
CCACs connect people across Ontario with quality in-home and community-based health care. We provide information, direct access to qualified care providers and community-based services to help people come home from hospital or live independently at home. We serve a population of more than 616,000 Ontarians with their care needs in the community where they live.

Ontario's CCACs are advancing Ontario's health care priorities; view our 2010-2011 CCAC Quality Report: Enhancing the Client Experience.

Putting clients at the heart of all that we do, view examples of how CCACs are connecting clients with the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

SOURCE: Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres

Gabriella Skubincan, Director, Communications, OACCAC
[phone]
[email protected] 

Cate Patchett, Corporate Liaison, South West CCAC
[phone]
[email protected]