The local health team will now serve as the hub for coordinating community-wide health care services in Wellington North, Minto and Mapleton.
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals announced, at a press conference at the Claire Stewart Medical Centre on Nov. 29, the province is extending its Health Link service. It is the second extended service under the jurisdiction of the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). The first one is in place in Guelph.
Sandals said the program is aimed at patients with serious health problems and setting them up with services they need.
“The five per cent of patients with the most complex needs use two-thirds of the (provincial) health care budget,” Sandals said.
Sandals said patients with complex health needs often don’t have their own doctor and often go to hospital emergency rooms for care. The Health Link is expected to redirect those patients to services needed.
“The new Health Link will make it easier for seniors and patients with complex conditions to get the care they need,” she said. “The rural Wellington Health Link will ensure that health providers in rural Wellington are working together to improve patient outcomes for those who need care the most.”
“My community partners and I are looking forward to providing excellent coordinated care in our communities through this initiative,” said Suzanne Trivers, executive director of the Mount Forest Family Health Team.
“Ninety per cent of our geography in the Waterloo Wellington LHIN is rural,” LHIN chairperson Joan Fisk said. “This new Health Link for rural Wellington will make a significant difference for local seniors and residents with complex health needs. They’ll benefit from one coordinated care plan that reflects their entire health situation, and that’s been developed by their team of doctors and health care professionals working as a team.”
The LHIN has been in talks with the province in establishing the Health Link service.
“It’s a different way of thinking about health care,” Fisk said at the press conference. “I’m impressed with the efforts of this community in getting this…because it means we are moving ahead.”
There are 37 Health Link areas established in Ontario to bring together health care providers in a given geographic area, including primary care providers, specialists, hospitals, home care, long-term care and community agencies.
Coordinating health care services in rural areas is something residents Doris Aitken and Isabelle Primmer feel is needed.
Primmer recalled the difficulties she and her son Bob faced when he suffered a debilitating stroke while living in Alberta. Primmer spent two years caring for him before bringing him back to live with her in Mount Forest and found it difficult to get him a health card so he could receive care here.
“We needed a doctor right away because we were dealing with a situation at home 24-7,” she said of the care needed when she brought her son home.
Eventually, through different contacts Primmer and her son got the help needed. She said coordinating the services available would have helped her.
Aitken agreed since she was first diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of this year. She said having chemotherapy available at Louise Marshall Hospital made getting treatment easier.
“I was grateful for the help,” Aitken said.
Her family has put together a recipe cookbook to sell to raise money for cancer therapy at the Mount Forest hospital.
Sandals said the Health Link designation will not cost more.
“The services are there,” she told the Advertiser after the press conference. “It’s helping people navigate the services.”
