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(Continued from
page
) He acknowledges the possible viability of primary health
care reform models that include all health professionals, as well
as family doctors, as part of a team addressing a community’s needs.
This might work, he thinks, especially if the configuration could
include the provision of continuing/ community care (as is now, to
some degree, the model in Quebec).
Hollander’s preference, which he calls “The Third Way”,
is to maintain the five sectors (hospitals, doctors, public health,
continuing/community care and pharmaceuticals) and to build effective
links between them at every level.
This includes cross-ministerial collaboration, as well as continuing/community
care “reaching in” to hospitals to assess and arrange to meet the
care needs of patients about to be discharged.
He envisions that the elimination of the fee-for-service method
of paying family doctors would allow them to act as case managers
for their patients, essentially buying and monitoring both hospital
and continuing/community care services on their behalf.
Above all, he thinks, we need funding to follow patients
from one sector to another, not by any voucher system, but indirectly
through continual monitoring of the case volumes of all sectors and
shifting funding accordingly.
This proposal is controversial, of course, but certainly
worth considering and debating. Readers interested in reading the
whole report can download it from the following site: http://www.hollanderanalytical.com/group/current-projects.html
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Changes
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Harriet
Smith Retiring Treasurer
Harriet
Smith retired at the end of June as treasurer of Care Watch Toronto
after serving in that capacity for three years. Harriet has been active
with this organization since its founding. Although her earlier university
graduate degree led her to a career in medical microbiology, she became
interested in her retirement years in advocacy for the elderly, becoming
active in this field following earning a Certificate in Gerontology
from Ryerson University. Harriet has served: on the Long term Care
Committee of the Toronto District Health Council; on the founding
Board of Directors on the Toronto Community Care Access Centre; on
the Board of directors of the Advocacy Centre For The Elderly (ACE);
and was former president of the Toronto Memorial Society as well as
former chair of the Toronto Mayor’s Committee on Aging.
Harriet
has done a superb job as treasurer, and we will miss her meticulous
attention to detail and her tactful way of saying no. Where were you,
Harriet, when the big U.S. Corporations needed you?
Thank
you Harriet. |
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Don
Cameron to be Newsletter Editor
Don
Cameron will take over from Fred Reynolds as editor of the newsletter.
Don
began as an elementary school teacher, and moved into social work
at the Toronto Board of Education. He worked in child welfare for
Metro Children’s Aid and Catholic Children’s Aid until he retired
in 1993. He has a Masters Degree in education and a PH.D in social
work from the University of Toronto. Since 1993, Don has been an active
member of the Ontario Association of Social Workers and of the Social
Justice Committee at First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto.
Don’s
wife, Joyce, suffers from dementia and has been a resident at Castleview
Wychwood Towers since Jan, 2001. |
