Last night, in the midst of putting this show together, I took a break and attended the opening evening of The Change Foundation’s Meeting of the Minds gathering.
The Change Foundation is a relatively new think tank devoted to health policy and more specifically “informed public discussion on key and emerging health system issues, starting with the integration of health-care services in communities across Ontario.” It’s the perfect place to research LHIN’s, especially when last night’s topic was “Lessons & Confessions from the Regionalized Health Care Front: Where can they lead Ontario?”
LHINs stand for Local Health Integration Networks. It’s a form of decentralizing power to various regions, so that important decision on the allocation of resources can be made more locally, rather than at Queen’s Park. It’s meant to better serve local and regional health care needs. They’ve been in place in Ontario since 2006.
There was supposed to be a debate about the values of regionalization between tonight’s guest, Steven Lewis, and Penny Ballem — former Deputy Minister of Health for British Columbia. Ms. Ballem had to pull out at the last minute and she was replaced by the formidable Kenneth Fyke — former Deputy Minister of Health for both B.C. and Saskatchewan, along with other numerous posts, too lengthy to mention.
Now Fyke isn’t against LHIN’s per se, but in taking over for Ms. Ballem, he was a good sport and took an adversarial position for the sake of debate. But his comments were awfully provocative. We were initially told that no comments would be for attribution so that all could speak freely, but I got both Steven and Kenneth’s permission to report on the debate.
Now Steven — as you will see tonight — is a great supporter of regionalization, but he’s honest enough to talk about its pitfalls. There are many.
He talked about where health care reform went wrong — it was launched at a time of fiscal restraint — an obstacle too difficult to overcome. Jobs had to be cut across the board.
Reform has never been able to move away from a health care system that treats the ill to evolve into a health care system that promotes good health.
Steven also talked about the strengths of regional health authorities — much of which you will hear tonight.
Ken Fyke argued that regionalization is a good idea, done badly. He pointed out that in places like Ontario, LHIN’s have no real authority. Regionalization has been oversold to Canadians. He went on to argue that the health care system isn’t meeting our core needs and that we lack accountability in the system.
Ken could not make it to tonight’s broadcast, but we’ve lined up a stellar cast. LHIN’s aren’t the sexiest topic in health care — but they could usher in real change. Then again, they may not. What do you think?
