NE LHIN wants to hear from you

North East Local Health Integration Network
News Release

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Your opinion will help shape what happens next as health care continues to be transformed to local care by the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN).

During May and June, NE LHIN staff will hold community engagements across the region to speak to both Northeastern community members and health service providers.

“I can speak from experience about the importance of local decision making. Health care affects each and every one of us, that’s why we need to talk to the providers and to the public,” says Louise Paquette, CEO.

The North East LHIN’s $1.2 billion dollar budget goes directly into front-line health care through accountability agreements the LHIN has with 186 local health care providers. Close to 64% of the budget goes to Northeastern Ontario’s 25 hospitals and the remaining to 42 long-term care homes, six community health centres, the North East Community Care Access Centre, 48 community mental health and addictions services and 64 community support services. With economic restraint and an aging demographic today’s reality, the NE LHIN will be engaging with fellow Northeastern Ontarians to ask:

• Are NE LHIN health care investments in your community reflective of the needs of the people who live there?
• Is there an opportunity for your health service providers to integrate so that residents receive more coordinated and patient-focused health care services?
• Sometimes access to care needs to be enabled as a result of distance. What can be done to improve access to health care programs and services for people living in your community?

The opinion-gathering sessions are an important part of the NE LHIN’s 2011-2012 Annual Community Engagement Plan, just posted to www.nelhin.on.ca. The NE LHIN posted its first Community Engagement Strategy in September, 2010.

Look for Community Engagement session dates on the NE LHIN website, or e-mail your ideas, thoughts and comments to [email protected] to help strengthen our health care system in Northeastern Ontario. You can also call 1-866-906-5446, attend or listen-in to NE LHIN Board meetings, or post comments to the CEO’s blog. You’ll find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Quick Facts – the NE LHIN Region Northeastern Ontario

• The NE LHIN region covers 400,000 square kilometres and is home to 550,000 residents.
• 24% of residents are Francophone.
• 10 % are Aboriginal, First Nation or Métis.
• 60% of people live in four urban centres; 40% live in 162 small cities, towns, townships, villages, municipalities, unorganized areas and First Nations.
• 17% of the NE LHIN is aged 65 and over, compared to 13% for Ontario.
• By 2030, the number of people age 65 and over in Northeastern Ontario is expected to rise to 30%.
• The NE LHIN region is challenged with youth out-migration and a decline in population (between 1996 and 2006, the NE LHIN population declined by 5.2% compared to the province which increased by 13.1%).

• In addition to funded service providers, the NE LHIN territory is home to: 533 family physicians, 27 family health teams, 4 public health units, 6 nurse practitioner-led clinics, and 16 nursing stations. These primary care providers are an essential part of the NE LHIN health service provider community and critical to ensuring alignment of the health delivery system.

• The LHIN Community Engagement Guidelines and Toolkit (February 2011) and the Primary Care Physician Engagement Resource Guide & Toolkit (December 2010) are available at www.nelhin.on.ca.

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