Ontario’s home and community care sector is failing patients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2015

QUEEN’S PARK – Last week, the Auditor General of Ontario released her report on the financial operations and service delivery of the 14 Community Care Access Centre’s (CCAC’s) in Ontario.  The report stresses that the provincial government must take urgent action to address the poor state of the home and community care sector in Ontario.

“I receive a great number of phone calls to my constituency office from folks complaining about Ontario’s home and community care,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett.  “Yet in the 12 years of this government, there has been no thorough evaluation of the current CCAC service-delivery model to ensure it’s working in the best interest of patients.  Where is the accountability?”

The report also revealed that only 61 per cent of CCAC dollars go to face-to-face care.  That means 40 per cent of the budget is going to administration and bureaucracy, such as the 41 per cent increase of the salary of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant CCAC CEO between 2009 and 2013 – the second highest paid CCAC CEO in the province.

“Forty-six of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant CCAC’s employees are making a $100,000 salary or higher,” added Barrett.  “These salaries are paid from resources that should be going to strengthen front-line patient care. Meanwhile, patients are waiting for care they desperately need, with 47 per cent of patients not being visited at home within 24 hours of being discharged from hospital.”

Barrett concluded, “Home and community care has the opportunity to improve health outcomes and cost-effectiveness in our health care system.  The Wynne Liberals must make this a priority and take an approach that puts patients – not administrative waste or a lack of accountability – at the centre of decision-making.”

 

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at

519-428-0446, 905-765-8413 or 1-800-903-8629