Health unit reviews on hold ahead of decision

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has put any review of its accommodations on hold in light of a provincial panel’s recommendation to scrap the province’s 36 health units and replace them with 14 larger bureaucracies.

The larger bodies would follow the same boundaries as the local health integration networks and do away with the existing health units.

Board of Health chairman Gary McNamara made a presentation at Thursday’s meeting outlining the plans of the government.

In June the health unit indicated it had begun the preliminary stages of reviewing its needs and studying whether it should remain in its current location at 1005 Ouellette Ave., which it now leases, or move to another larger site.

But in a 29-page report released without much fanfare over the summer, a panel recommended doing away with the smaller health units.

McNamara said the province is likely motivated by the fact that half of the provincial budget is directed at health care and they are looking at ways to cut costs.

The Erie-St. Clair LHIN covers Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton.

McNamara said such a drastic change cannot be achieved before the next provincial election in June.

“Something like this would take two or three years to complete,” McNamara said.

The whole process would be extremely complex because there are a number of different operating models for health units across the province, with some, such as in Toronto, directly run by the municipality, while others, like Windsor-Essex, run by an independent board.

The Chatham-Kent Health Unit operates on a hybrid model with some municipal control.