Changes Coming to Health Care Delivery in Ontario
Yesterday the government of Ontario unveiled its updated Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery, an amendment to the first Plan to Stay Open released in March of this year.
Consistent with the Premier's comments, it appears that "all options" really are on the table, from an expansion of the use of Independent Health Facilities (new licenses for which have not been issued in decades), to changes to the way in which patients may be discharged from hospital to long-term care, to openness to the expansion of the use of private healthcare providers in a public healthcare system (or the beginnings of a parallel public – private healthcare system?). How these changes may impact health providers, professionals' practices, and the business of healthcare, and what new opportunities may be available to them remains to be seen.
The government's Plan to Stay Open has five areas of focus or goals: preserving hospital capacity; providing the right care in the right place; further reducing surgical wait lists; easing pressure on emergency departments; and further expanding Ontario's workforce.
The first two goals have resulted in draft legislation, Bill 7, More Beds, Better Care Act, 2022, which proposes to amend theFixing Long-term Care Act, 2021 to add a new provision for hospital patients designated as requiring an “alternate level of care” (ALC), meaning that they no longer need care in an acute hospital. The bill will permit a placement coordinator to determine ALC patients' eligibility for admission to a long-term care home, select a long-term care home for the ALC patientsin their geographic area, and authorize their admission to the home.
In furtherance of goal 5, the government has called on the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) to fast-track the registration of internationally trained nurses. The CNO has already issued a response, about actions that can be taken to expeditiously register internationally educated nurse (IEN) applicants, who are qualified to provide safe nursing care. Actions include: regulation changes to permit more IEN applicants to register in the Temporary Class; continuing the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership program; and gathering data to identify why IEN applicants may delay taking their registration exam and actions that can be taken to address this. These actions presents new challenges and opportunities for IEN applicants, as well as for the medical and healthcare practices with which they will work.
We will track with interest legislative changes as they are unveiled, and continue to guide our clients as they adapt to what could be a new regime in health care in Ontario.
Please contact us if you are looking for assistance with new challenges and opportunities in healthcare – ideally before embarking on a new venture!
