The head of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre says the "People's Health Care Act" will create a better alignment of healthcare responsibilities.
CEO Michael Barrett said the creation of Ontario Health is positive and will lead to a more seamless transition for patients in the health system.
Barrett said the creation of Ontario Regional Health Teams will lead to better care for patients in Grey, Bruce, Huron and Perth counties. He added the teams will bring organizations like local family health teams, hospitals and long term care homes into one entity.
Barrett said patients seem happy with the care they receive from each agency but have the most concerns with their transitions between health care entities like hospitals and long term care.
"It's the transition points where they have concerns. Bringing these organizations together as one organization, Ontario Health Teams, will hopefully begin to address some of these transition challenges for patients," he explained.
Barrett said bringing various health care agencies like cancer care, and local health integrations networks into one organization called Ontario Health will better align health care responsibilities
"It can be challenging in terms of responsibilities and accountabilities when you have these number of different agencies with different responsibilities around quality and health system management, so bringing those together into one agency will ensure less disconnect between those agencies," he said.
Barrett was CEO of the Southwest LHIN for 10 years.
