I rise today to speak to third reading of the Convenient Care at Home Act. I will be sharing my time with my outstanding parliamentary assistants, MPP Robin Martin, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence, and MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, the member for Newmarket–Aurora. Thank you for everything you do to make the Ministry of Health stronger.

We know people and their families want better and faster access to home care services, and as it has been said before, the only thing better than having care close to home is having care in your home. To do this, we are improving the way people connect to home and community care services by breaking down barriers—long-standing barriers—between home care and other parts of the health care system.

Through this proposed legislation, our government is taking another important step toward to improve and modernize home and community care. It supports our continued efforts to build a more connected and convenient health care system and to improve the patient experience for the people of Ontario. It is another way we are putting patients at the heart of our health care system.

We have met regularly with service providers as we have developed and implemented our home care modernization plans. The advice we have received from front-line experts in home and community care is integral to attaining our shared objective: to provide high-quality, connected and convenient care to Ontarians.

We appreciate the ongoing input from groups such as Home Care Ontario and the Ontario Community Support Association, whose members work alongside provider organizations to deliver home and community care to numerous Ontarians each and every day. The dedication, tireless efforts and support of our community partners has been key to the progress we’re making in home and community care. Their expertise and commitment to Ontarians’ well-being has been crucial in shaping the proposed legislation.

I also appreciate the invaluable input provided by the Minister’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. The council consists of patient, family and caregiver representatives who are ensuring the voices of patients, families and caregivers are a fundamental part of policy development and decision-making. Engaging with patients, families and caregivers is central to building a patient-centred health care system. Listening and learning from patient, family and caregiver experiences helps support better-quality care and improved health outcomes.

I have met with the council on a number of occasions and am grateful for their advice. The council has highlighted how timely and accessible home and community care plays a critical role in our health care system and in effectively meeting the needs of patients and families.

Engaging the council in ongoing discussions and input from organizations and stakeholders is a key part of our efforts to modernize home care and build a stronger, more connected health care system.

I want to take a moment, in particular, to thank Betty-Lou Kristy, the council’s chair. By bringing the patient experience to the forefront of decision-making, we are building a health care system that is more connected and convenient for all Ontarians.

Another pillar of this work is to ensure our home and community care workforce is supported effectively, so they can continue to provide the essential care so many Ontarians rely on. Thousands of dedicated front-line home and community care workers provide incredible support to people and families across Ontario each and every day. Their work can have a tremendous impact on people’s lives, often at a time when they need it most. They play a significant role in our communities and make a tangible contribution to our collective health and wellness. Our government values their role and the extraordinary care they provide to Ontarians.

That is why we are continuing to build home and community care capacity. We are delivering on our promise to expedite additional funding from our $1-billion investment to stabilize, expand and improve home care services and address worker compensation this year.

We are also investing an additional $100 million for community care to stabilize the delivery of services and address workers’ compensation. And our investments are having a real impact. In 2022-23, our investments provided additional volumes of service, including close to a million estimated hours of person-supported services and 120,000 nursing shifts. These are investments that help people return to the comfort of their own home sooner to recover after they have surgery or when they have complex health conditions.

Building our province’s home and community care capacity not only provides many people with a better health care experience, but it also supports our health care and hospital capacity. It helps reduce avoidable hospital readmissions, visits to emergency departments and unnecessary placements in long-term-care homes. It frees up crucial hospital resources and helps to ensure hospital beds are available for those who need them most. It’s an important part of providing people with the right care in the right place.

Speaker, supporting access to home and community care services helps ensure that Ontarians receive care in appropriate settings. Home care keeps people healthy and at home, where they want to be, and plays a significant role in the lives of around 700,000 families annually. Home care services in Ontario address the needs of people of all ages who are living with different conditions, disabilities or diseases, helping them live safely, healthy and independently in their homes or in community.

Home care services are complemented by community care services, which support around 600,000 people each year. And we know the demands for these services will continue to grow.

With an aging population, demographic changes and rising patient acuity, there will be an increased need for effective home and community care that is part of a strong, integrated health care system. We’ve seen a notable increase in the proportion of seniors who are seeking home care. The number of seniors in our province is also projected to significantly increase in the years and decades ahead. It’s imperative that we put in place an effective system of home and community care services. We need to make sure Ontarians receive the right care in the right setting. We need to make sure that home care is a strong, viable care option and that people don’t have to unnecessarily rely on hospitals or long-term-care homes.

Speaker, home and community care is an important part of an integrated and connected health care system. We need to ensure that our home and community care providers can work as effectively as possible with primary care, acute care providers, long-term-care homes and other providers, such as mental health and addictions providers and other providers of health and social services. To help ensure that home care services are better linked with primary care, hospitals and other parts of the health system, Ontario health teams are being established as a new model of integrated care delivery that will begin to take on the delivery of home care. This is another important milestone for Ontario health teams as they move forward with fulfilling their mandate to deliver integrated home care and health care.

Ontario health teams play a key role in connecting all parts of a patient’s care journey. These collaborative teams bring together various providers from across the health care system and community sectors. This includes primary care, hospitals, home and community care, long-term care, mental health and addictions, and other providers. In Ontario health teams, different providers work together to better coordinate care and share resources. They are responsible for understanding their patients’ health care history, providing support with navigating the health care system and easing transitions between providers. Ontario health teams provide patients with connected care from their different providers. The Convenient Care at Home Act would enable the gradual transition of home care to Ontario health teams. Ontario health teams are at various phases in their development and in their readiness to provide home care. As Ontario health teams develop and evolve, they will take the next step to better connect and coordinate people’s care and begin to take on direct responsibility for managing home care delivery.

This proposed legislation, if passed, would support the creation of a single integrated service organization known as Ontario Health atHome, which would support Ontario health teams. This organization would be a subsidiary of Ontario Health and would be created through the consolidation of the existing 14 regional home and community care support service organizations in Ontario. Local health integration networks, or LHINs, would no longer exist.

Ontario Health is the agency responsible for managing health care planning and delivery, and funding most other health care organizations in the province. Ontario Health has a key role in supporting the integration and coordination of our health care system to ensure it is centred on the needs of patients and families. It ensures providers have the information and tools they need to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care.

The proposed legislation amends provisions governing the designation of Ontario health teams, which will ultimately provide home care as part of their responsibility for locally integrated health care. It is the expected that the first group of Ontario health teams would start to be designated by the end of next year. By early 2025, the first transitions of home care funding and responsibilities to Ontario health teams are expected to take place. As each Ontario health team starts to take direct responsibility for managing home care delivery, strong, central back-office and operational supports will continue to be provided to them by Ontario Health atHome.

Furthermore, the province would continue to work with home care and health services providers to develop, implement and expand new, innovative models of care that provide better support for patients and their families. For example, these models of care could provide better support for hospital-to-home transitions. And to support new models of care and support quality improvement, home procurement models and contracting processes would also be updated. The focus would be on introducing new performance management standards, updating standardized contracts and preserving existing volumes for qualified providers.

As change takes place, such as the new consolidated home care agency, new models of care or updated contractual frameworks, our focus continues to be on the continuity and stability of care. Patients and families that need home care, long-term care, home placement and referral services can be assured of this throughout the transition process.

Stability and continuity of care also mean providing stability for the home care workforce. As home and community care support services transition to the new service organization, patients, families, and caregivers will continue to access home care in the same way and through the same trusted contacts. Under the proposed legislation, the employees of the home and community care support service organizations, including unionized and direct-care staff, would transition to the service organization. Their rights under their employment agreements or collective agreements would transfer with them.

Speaker, the proposed changes to modernize home care will also improve the system of care delivery for the many organizations and thousands of care workers in the sector. We are indebted to these amazing individuals who provide front-line care to some of the most vulnerable people in our province and make such a difference in their lives. Our changes are focused on supporting them as they provide this essential care to patients.

As we modernize home and community care, we are advancing the work of Ontario health teams. Through these teams, it will be easier for people to find and navigate home and community care and provide more seamless coordination of services. Ontario health teams will be a one-stop shop where people can be provided with an easy-to-understand home care plan. Under Ontario health teams, people will know the type of care they will receive before they head home from the hospital.

Ontario Health atHome care coordinators would be assigned to work within Ontario health teams and other front-line care settings. They would also work alongside care providers like doctors and nurses and directly with patients while in the hospital or in other care settings. This connected approach would help enable seamless transitions from primary care or hospitals to home care.

An initial group of 12 Ontario health teams has been chosen to lead the way in delivering home care in their communities starting in 2025. With the support of the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health, these teams will focus on transitioning individuals experiencing chronic diseases from primary care or hospitals to home and community care with ease.

Speaker, our government has been making record investments in our public health care system and we are taking bold and innovative action to address long-standing challenges and pressures on our health care system. We know Ontarians deserve better health care. We know our tremendous health care workers need a system that better supports their incredible, world-class skills and allows them to do what they do best: provide exceptional patient care.

That’s why we are so focused on implementing our government’s Your Health plan and taking important, necessary steps to provide Ontarians with better and easier access to services across the health care system. This includes continuing to increase the number of assessments and treatments that can be conveniently provided to Ontarians by pharmacists without first having to get a doctor’s appointment.

We are expanding community surgical and diagnostic centres and access to MRI and CT scans and expanding health care training and education programs, grants and supports.

We are taking action to break down barriers for internationally educated health care workers and those registered in other provinces and territories to allow them to start working sooner in Ontario.

We are building on the 63,000 new nurses and 8,000 new physicians that have registered to work in Ontario since 2018, along with the thousands of additional personal support workers who are now providing care in our province.

We are fixing long-term care by building more than 30,000 net new long-term-care beds and upgrading more than 28,000 older beds, as well as increasing the amount of care residents receive and increasing the workforce.

We are supporting patients and health care providers alike through our government’s investment in digital and virtual care, including initiatives such as virtual home and community care, integrated virtual care, remote care management and surgical transitions, and patient portals.

And we are expanding access and improving the way people can connect to home and community care services by increasing funding for these services and breaking down long-standing barriers between home care and other parts of the health care system.

I’d like to share a couple of quotes on what the Convenient Care at Home Act means for home and community care providers and their clients. Sue VanderBent, the CEO of Home Care Ontario, said, “Ontario must massively expand the size and role of the provincial home and community care system to properly care for a growing and aging population. The legislative changes are an important step towards ensuring more Ontarians get the health care they require in the most appropriate setting—at home.”

Deborah Simon, CEO of the Ontario Community Support Association, had this to say: “Home and community care plays a critical role in the future of a strong Ontario health care system. Legislative changes that strengthen this vital service will be important for supporting client care in an integrated health care system.”

Sandra Ketchen, president and CEO of Spectrum Health Care, said, “This announcement is an important step in modernizing Ontario’s home care system. We look forward to continuing to work together to provide the best possible care to patients, in the comfort of their homes.”

Lastly, Matt Anderson, the CEO of Ontario Health: “This ‘connected care’ approach, and the provincial investment to support it, will help transform health care delivery and support the vision of all Ontarians having full access to the care they need, across the spectrum of health care—all working together to deliver integrated care, through their Ontario health team.”

The proposed Convenient Care at Home Act would help us fulfill our commitment to provide Ontarians with the right care in the right place. These changes would build a better, more connected model of home care, bringing decision-making closer to the patient where it belongs and strengthening support for our dedicated health care workers who coordinate and provide front-line care. The integration of home care through Ontario health teams will better connect our care services at the local level, building a model of home care that will ensure services can meet the unique needs of each patient and family.

We all know the only thing better than having care close to home is having care in your home. I encourage everyone in this Legislature to support this important piece of legislation and support better home care and community care for all Ontarians, because not only will it benefit your constituents and communities, but it will help ensure care is there for our loved ones as well, when and where they need it.

I’m now happy to turn my time over and share it with my exceptional parliamentary assistants, the member from Eglinton–Lawrence and the member from Newmarket–Aurora, who will speak further about our government’s efforts to improve home and community care service and provide more connected and convenient health care in Ontario.

Let me just start by thanking the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health for her work on introducing this important legislation and her dedication to strengthening our publicly funded health care system and improving home and community care for the people of Ontario no matter where they live.

With a growing and aging population and people living increasingly longer, home and community care is of vital importance for our health care system. Our seniors deserve the very best, and they deserve to be able to live comfortably with dignity at home and access health care services conveniently so they can be healthy and supported in their homes and in their community, where they want to be, close to their loved ones.

As outlined by the Minister of Health and in our recently introduced legislation, the gradual transition of home care into Ontario health teams is a fundamental part of the work we are doing to improve the home care experience for patients, for families and for caregivers, and it will improve how providers collaborate to provide care which is centred around patients.

Speaker, the proposed Convenient Care at Home Act is the latest legislation designed to improve the delivery of home care in Ontario and, if passed, would create a strong and centralized foundation for home care service delivery now and as care is delivered through our Ontario health teams in the future, enabling service provider organizations, health service providers, Ontario Health, and Ontario health teams to implement new models of home care that better connect patients and caregivers with health and other services, including from primary care, community providers, hospitals, and others. Home care would be delivered to patients in a more connected way, as new models of care are implemented and home care is delivered through Ontario health teams.

Connecting home care to other parts of the health care system through Ontario health teams will enable easier transitions for patients from one type of care to another, such as from hospital to home, and make teamwork and communication easier among providers, patients and caregivers. This will help ensure we are making the very best use of our whole health care system and all of the capacity in it.

Continuity of patient care is a foundational part of this plan. Maintaining stable home care delivery while transitioning to Ontario health teams requires careful planning and preparation. We have made significant progress already in modernizing the home care sector, achieving better patient outcomes through system integration and ensuring that our publicly funded health care system remains accessible and sustainable for future generations.

Our government is supporting modernization with significant investments to expand system capacity, including the permanent wage enhancement for personal support workers and the temporary retention initiative for nurses, plus significant funding for service expansion and for new models of care. The government is investing $1 billion over three years, which was actually expedited this year, including nearly $300 million to stabilize the home and community care workforce. This is a historic investment into home care that supports better working conditions, including compensation for travel time.

In 2020, our government introduced the Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act. This established a new framework for home and community care. This new legislative framework, alongside new home and community care regulations, took effect in 2022. The legislative framework was a first step designed to facilitate the delivery of home care by Ontario health teams and enable new models of care, including changes to care coordination.

The Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act ushered in a modernized and flexible framework for home and community care. This framework enables Ontario health teams to provide home care services as well as make it more flexible and efficient for contracted service provider organizations to coordinate and deliver care.

To build on this work, one of the first steps under the proposed Convenient Care at Home Act would be to integrate the 14 Home and Community Care Support Services organizations into a single organization called Ontario Health atHome, which would take on responsibility for coordinating all home care services across the province through Ontario health teams, under Ontario Health. Establishing one single organization will help us address the challenges in delivering home care, while promoting efficiency, stability for patients and staff, and consistency of service delivery.

Through the transition of Home and Community Care Support Services to Ontario Health atHome, staff employment and collective agreements will continue to ensure continuity for patients and staff.

Ontario Health atHome will provide critical operational supports, including care coordination supports and back-office services, to enable efficient care delivery, with Ontario health teams focused on patient-facing clinical delivery and Ontario Health atHome focused on supporting that care. Instead of different policies or processes, or separate information technology systems, one single organization will be more efficient, cutting down on administrative duplication and bureaucracy and creating a more seamless experience for patients and their families.

Ontario Health would fund and oversee the organization Ontario Health atHome, which would be a crown agency, just like the home and community care support service organizations. They would be able to align funding and oversight of home and community care, and ensure better alignment across the health care sector, while supporting convenient, connected, high-quality home and community care for patients and caregivers through our Ontario health teams.

Establishing Ontario Health atHome would also support the effective “scale and spread” of new models of care already in place in parts of the province, as well as create a platform to support consistent and equitable care delivery across Ontario health teams.

Ontario Health has proven itself with its significant experience in health system integration. Ontario Health has already successfully integrated 22 former health agencies and organizations—ranging from Cancer Care Ontario to eHealth to Health Quality Ontario—into a single streamlined organization. They have brought together the expertise and knowledge from all of these agencies to deliver a more connected and convenient health care system.

Ontario Health is also implementing our government’s Digital First for Health Strategy, and they support the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, which is helping to implement the Roadmap to Wellness, our comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy.

Speaker, for years, there has been significant variation in access to care across the province, and this was identified as a real opportunity for improvement. All Ontarians deserve the same standard of care, no matter where they live, at every stage of their life.

Ontario’s home and community care support service organizations, which would transition to a single agency under Ontario Health called Ontario Health atHome, have also been collaborating to support more connected home care and to support Ontario health teams. Across the province, we are already seeing impactful results. Let me just give a few examples.

In Central East, a multidisciplinary mobile emergency diversion team has been established. It is made up of rapid-response nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurse practitioners and community paramedicine providers. This multidisciplinary team assists with immediate patient care needs, like administering medications, wound care, and home safety assessments, until the contracted home care services can be secured. This temporary and urgent hands-on care allows patients to be discharged from hospital sooner, and also helps prevent a return trip to the emergency department, while helping to preserve hospital beds for those who need them most. The multidisciplinary mobile emergency team was first piloted in the Peterborough area, and it helped to divert 92 emergency department visits within just 120 days.

In Durham, Home and Community Care Support Services Central East is supporting a local Ontario health team leading project, which will deliver an integrated system of care for the residents of downtown Oshawa. The residents of this area have higher rates of chronic conditions and a higher utilization of emergency departments and community and social services compared to the regional average. With this particular project, called the downtown Oshawa neighbourhood integrated model of care, patients will be able to access care from various providers on-site at a local apartment building that is also home to a significant number of seniors facing socio-economic challenges. This integrated model of care will include on-site care coordinators, community paramedicine providers, Lakeridge mental health services, Community Care Durham, and contracted service provider organizations. Care may also be accessed through self-referrals and primary-care referrals. The patient pathway is based on the principle of “no wrong door” for services.

I saw a similar pilot in Burlington, when I went with my colleague the MPP from Burlington to visit the Burlington Ontario Health Team organization, which has a community wellness hub which has similar services.

In North Simcoe Muskoka, a stroke care coordinator role has been developed to help patients transition more easily from hospital to home after experiencing a stroke. Based out of the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and supported by the Central East Stroke Network, this program has helped increase the number of stroke patients admitted to the home and community care support services’ stroke pathway and supported admissions to the pathway from all of the hospitals in the area. Patients, hospitals and the community alike all benefit from this program. We have seen a reduction in hospital readmissions for stroke patients, and improved integration between home care and outpatient programs.

In Central West, the hospital-to-home direct nursing service has a dedicated team of nurses to support palliative patients through regular check-ins and symptom monitoring. These nurses assess patients and can provide appropriate patient care, which helps to prevent the need for emergency intervention. The hospital-to-home nurse completes weekly clinical assessments of the patients, their symptoms and the situation in their home, and provides education and resources to support the patient, the family or caregiver, so that the patient can remain safely in their own home, which is something that so many of our constituents tell us that they want for their families, for their friends and for their neighbours.

Home and Community Care Support Services South West has also implemented palliative care initiatives such as providing specialized education, which is enabling patients to have access to nurses with more specialized skills in palliative care and supports more patient- and family-centred end-of-life care in their place of choice: at home.

The new model of care, called @home, will ensure hospitals and health care partners are working together to deliver an integrated approach for patients, for their families and their caregivers while they transition to home from the hospital. Most patients enrolled in @home programs have been seniors who are at significant risk for re-hospitalization. Patients receive care for up to 16 weeks, after which they may transition to home and community care support services for ongoing health care and personal supports. Home and Community Care Support Services Central have supported the safe transition of hundreds of patients through recently established @home programs from five hospitals already: Humber River in Toronto, Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill and Vaughan, Oak Valley Health in Markham-Stouffville, North York General, and Southlake in Newmarket.

Once patients are safely at home, home care providers work together to develop a plan to meet each patient’s individual needs, including services such as nursing, personal support, restorative or rehabilitation services, and medical equipment and supplies. This connected patient-centred model of care has optimized patient recovery while also helping to support and protect hospital capacity.

These are impressive accomplishments that are demonstrating, on the ground, the exciting opportunities and advantages for patients with integrated models of care. We will continue to build on this work and deliver more wins for patients and communities as we transition the home and community care support services organizations into a single agency: Ontario Health atHome.

And as local home care delivery becomes the responsibility of our Ontario health teams, there will be even more opportunities to provide integrated and effective care for patients and families, suited to their particular needs in that community. They will be part of a more connected health care system, with an integrated model of care delivery that is better structured and equipped to provide patients with faster and easier access to home and community care.

We continue to see more and more examples of the benefits of connected and integrated care, whether it is the province’s community paramedicine initiative, where paramedics work alongside home care and primary care providers to give people living with chronic health conditions additional supports to live at home more independently and prevent return visits to the emergency department, or through our expanded 911 patient care models that give paramedics flexibility to treat certain 911 patients on-scene, in their homes, or take them to a more appropriate care facility in the community rather than just an emergency room. This approach allows more people to be diverted from emergency departments, and instead receive faster and more appropriate care.

Speaker, home care is clearly a vital part of our health care sector, connecting patients to the care that they need in the comfort of their homes, while allowing the broader system to function more efficiently and serve patients better.

As our government has continued to modernize home and community care, including planning the transition of home care to Ontario health teams, we have listened carefully to and worked closely with our service provider organizations, our home care staff, patients and families, and other system partners to ensure that there is a solid foundation of care that is more seamlessly connected with other parts of our health care system and which is based on the core principle of patient-centred care.

A key part of our ongoing effort towards a modern, patient-focused model of home care is the continuity—as I said before—of patient care as we make this transition. It is essential that we avoid disruption for patients and families. And that is why our government has carefully engaged in thoughtful planning and preparation to ensure stable home care delivery is maintained. At the same time, we are making improvements to care through this program, and the gradual transition for Ontario health teams will make that happen.

The proposed Convenient Care at Home Act is critical to supporting Ontario health teams to continue to forge these relationships and these strong connections, and to better integrate home care across our health care system. Our government has taken innovative, bold and decisive action to strengthen our health care system.

After 25 years of not really much change, we are working collaboratively with our health and community partners to implement a more connected and convenient system for Ontarians, so they can get the health care they need where and when they need it. The proposed act today, the Convenient Care at Home Act, is really another step forward to ensure that Ontarians get the patient-centred care that they need and deserve.

I will now pass the rest of the time over to my colleague the MPP from Newmarket–Aurora, the other parliamentary assistant to health.

Firstly, I would like to thank the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health for her leadership as we build a stronger, more connected, publicly funded health care system for the people of Ontario—I’d also like to thank my fellow parliamentary assistant for her remarks today, for her support to the minister and for her mentorship to me on this file—a health care system that is truly patient-centred and provides convenient and connected care when and where people need it. I am proud to rise in the House today to speak to the Convenient Care at Home Act for its third reading, both representing my constituents of Newmarket–Aurora and as the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health.

Speaker, our government is making record investments in health care. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have increased the health budget by more than $16 billion since 2018. These funds have been invested to improve health care delivery and connect Ontarians to faster, more convenient care closer to home. We have made investments across the health care system to ensure that patients can receive the care they need when they need it, expanding access to primary care providers; supporting health care infrastructure and growing the health care workforce; bringing down wait times for services; reducing unnecessary emergency department visits, avoidable readmissions to hospitals and the rate of alternate level of care; improving access to mental health and addiction services, including for individuals in crisis; improving access to digital services; providing people with more connected and convenient care through Ontario health teams; and delivering better-connected care for people in their community and in their home, including improving transitions and wait times between hospital and home care.

Today, as we have the third reading of the proposed Convenient Care at Home Act, we recognize it as another important milestone in providing better home and community care in our province and in supporting Ontario health teams to deliver comprehensive, integrated care to patients, families and caregivers. If passed, the Convenient Care at Home Act will create a new organization called Ontario Health atHome, which has been spoken about today and previously.

Speaker, here in Ontario we enjoy world-class health services thanks to our incredibly skilled and dedicated health care workers. They are the pillar of our health care system and essential in supporting healthy communities. I’d like to take this moment to thank them for everything they do. We sincerely appreciate the work they do to keep Ontarians healthy and cared for.

Our government knows the status quo is not working. I know all of us as MPPs have heard time and again from patients, caregivers and their families about the barriers they face in accessing care. We have listened and we continue to listen, and we have taken bold, innovative and decisive action to transform our health care system to better focus on the needs of patients, families and caregivers, as well as better support for our health care providers.

Since 2019, we have taken concrete action to build a patient-centred health care system with the creation of the Ontario health teams, which will be further supported and empowered by the proposed Convenient Care at Home Act.

In these past few years, we have made great progress in improving the delivery of health care in the province through the establishment of the Ontario health teams. With the Connecting Care Act, which established Ontario health teams, we created a model of integrated, population health-based care delivery. Ontario health teams bring together health and community care providers to work and care for a population as one team, even across organizations or physical locations. We now have 57 Ontario health teams, established in every region of the province. This summer, we announced three new Ontario health teams in northeastern Ontario, which will better connect and coordinate care for people in communities including Chapleau, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls, Hearst, Hornepayne, Timmins, Sudbury, Espanola, Manitoulin and Elliot Lake. We are very close to the goal of full provincial coverage, ensuring that every person in Ontario has the support of an Ontario health team close to home. The Ministry of Health and Ontario Health continue to engage with providers in West Parry Sound so they can become an Ontario health team in the very near future, building on their strong foundation to integrating and improving care in their community.

We are seeing Ontario health teams have success across the province, delivering a variety of wins for patients and providers. Ontario health teams are exploring new partnerships with home care providers for more convenient and coordinated transition services.

One leader I’m very proud of is Southlake Regional Health Centre in my great riding of Newmarket–Aurora. In my community, they are a member of the Southlake Community Ontario Health Team, with their Geriatric Alternate Level of Care Reduction Program. The program ensures patients who have completed an acute-care hospital stay have a home care plan in place before they leave.

A number of Ontario health teams are developing new models of integrated home care by participating in a leading projects initiative. For example, the Guelph Wellington Ontario Health Team will implement an integrated primary care team model that integrates home and community care support service coordinators into primary care teams to bridge information gaps, enhance care quality and ensure that home care providers are dedicated members of the patient’s care team.

In Durham, the Ontario health team will implement a primary and community care hub model, using a central location to provide wraparound services for older adults, ensuring seamless transitions among services and a flexible support network including non-traditional providers to address diverse patient needs.

Ontario health teams are also enhancing access to home care and primary care services so that patients and families can get the care they need in the comfort of their homes or communities. For example, the East Toronto Health Partners Ontario Health Team has developed primary and community care response teams to support primary care providers in providing care to homebound and vulnerable seniors with unmet health or social needs.

Ontario Health will be leading next steps in the assessment of these new models so we can learn how to scale and spread these successful approaches. As these new models are replicated across the province, there will be tangible improvements to patient care and patient and family experiences.

The Ontario health team model also provides the opportunity for front-line health care professionals to expand on their great work so they can take the lead at doing what they know best: delivering excellent patient care. Ontario health teams are already transforming how people access care in their communities. And we have seen many examples of health and community providers collaborating to deliver more connected and convenient patient-centred care.

For example, the Algoma Ontario Health Team has established a Community Wellness Bus, bringing primary health care to vulnerable community members, helping to provide easier access to health and social services, improve health outcomes and reduce gaps in mental health and addictions care. Between April 2022 and March 2023, the community wellness bus had more than 5,000 visits.

Another example is a neighbourhood care team that has been established within a seniors’ housing building by the North Toronto Ontario Health Team. The neighbourhood care team provides low-income senior tenants a range of health care services, including regular blood pressure checks, foot care, access to social workers, wellness checks, and attachment to primary care.

The Middlesex London Ontario Health Team is another example. They are connecting primary care providers to on-demand video or audio phone interpretation services to enable patients to receive care in the language they are most comfortable using.

And in the north, the Noojmawing Sookatagaing Ontario Health Team has used their surgical transition projects to reduce 30-day emergency department visits by around 32%, and reduced average length of stay by 48%.

The Mid-West Toronto Ontario Health Team has a remote care monitoring program that has seen positive outcomes in supporting alternate-level-of-care patient discharges from the hospital back into the community. This program is now being spread to other Ontario health teams across the province.

Ontario health teams are continuing their efforts to improve the health care experiences and outcomes for their target patient population with strategies such as advancing digital health and virtual care initiatives, enhancing the quality of home and community care for seniors and their caregivers, creating more seamless care pathways, and making transitions between health care providers smoother for their patients.

Over time, Ontario health teams are expanding the services they provide, and they are continuing to build towards integrated care for their entire attributed population. Once the system matures, Ontario health teams will be accountable for providing a full and coordinated continuum of patient care. Through Ontario health teams, patients will experience improved access to health services, including digital health and virtual care options, better coordination and transitions in care, and better communication and information from their health care providers. And as home care services gradually shift to Ontario health teams and our government modernizes home and community care, patients will benefit from these changes.

The Convenient Care at Home Act, if passed, would establish a strong and centralized foundation for a stable home care system today and as Ontario health teams take on responsibility for home care delivery in the future. Consolidating the 14 Home and Community Care Support Services organizations into Ontario Health atHome will also enable Ontario Health to continue in its role providing funding, oversight and integration of home care with other sectors, while Ontario Health atHome would be focused on service delivery. Ontario Health atHome would be organized to obtain the benefits of having home care in a single organization, under Ontario Health, and organized to serve and be responsive to local Ontario health teams. Home care will be easier to find and navigate, and transitions from hospital to home will be more convenient, with easy-to-understand home care plans for patients and their families.

Speaker, our government continues to support and invest in Ontario health teams. And the Ministry of Health has directly invested more than $118 million to support initial development, build capacity for collaboration and implement the Ontario health team model.

Ontario health teams are also playing a pivotal role in implementing the province’s Digital First for Health Strategy because in order to have an integrated health care system, we need strong digital capabilities on the front lines of clinical care. The Ministry of Health is working closely with Ontario health teams to support digital health adoption, including the development of digital standards for virtual patient visits, digital health information exchange, online appointment booking and patient portals, while also allowing for Ontario health teams to implement digital solutions in a way that will meet local needs for years to come. Digital health gives front-line providers better access to tools and information to meet the needs of their patients and empowers those patients with more choices in how they can access health care.

Our government has allocated more than $124 million to support Ontario health teams and other health care providers to deliver digital and virtual care options so people in Ontario can easily connect with a health care worker from the comfort of their home. Digital care options can include remote care monitoring and online appointment booking, among other advancements. So far, more than 4.2 million patients have benefited from over 760 approved digital and virtual care projects. And we are measuring the success of digital projects to see their significant impact on health care delivery and to consider the opportunities for spreading and scaling initiatives to other health care teams across the province, because we know that Ontarians want to remain in their home as long as possible, surrounded by the people they know and trust.

That’s exactly why the Convenient Care at Home Act is so important. We have the opportunity to modernize the province’s home care system for future generations and better ensure people in every corner of our great province can connect with the supports and services they need for years to come, in the place where they want to be. The only thing better than having care close to home is having care in your home. If passed, this legislation will ensure just that.

Thank you to the minister for this legislation. It couldn’t come too soon. A lot of the calls that I received when I was working in health care were regarding access to home and community care. It was further difficult to deal with because I was dealing with two different LHINs. I’m wondering if the minister can tell us how this legislation will help with the navigation and access to home and community care.