(This is the complete press release that is referred to in our November 22, newscasts)

Northumberland County welcomed representatives from the Ministry of Health to Port Hope on Friday, November 15 for an in-person community site visit of the proposed Ontario Health Team of Northumberland (OHT-N). The visit, hosted at the Community Health Centres of Northumberland, represents the final step in the local Ontario Health Team application process which formally began eight months ago with the Province of Ontario’s call for interest.

Patient, caregiver and Alderville First Nation representatives joined with representatives from both County hospitals, primary care providers, community health centres, family health teams, long-term care, home and community care support services, Emergency Medical Services, hospice palliative care, housing and mental health for the three-hour presentation and discussion.

The visit opened with a presentation from members of the OHT-N Collaborative Planning Committee detailing the key elements of the local application, the engagement strategies to date for developing the proposed Year 1 priority projects (namely, creation of a Volunteer Peer Support initiative, a Community Paramedicine initiative and the establishment of Rural Outreach Clinics), and the background work completed to date.

Ministry of Health representatives then had the opportunity to pose questions based on the presentation and the full OHT-N application submitted October 9, 2019. In addition to the OHT-N’s proposed priority projects, questions explored the extent of local primary care participation (in Northumberland this is now over 97 per cent—believed to be among the highest for any OHT to date), barriers or enablers that could hinder or accelerate the local OHT model implementation, relationships and linkages with other OHTs, target population (in Year 1 and beyond) and patient/caregiver engagement.

In addition to Northumberland, 30 other communities were invited to complete the full OHT application. Site visits of those who submitted full applications have been occuring in recent weeks. The Ministry of Health has advised that it expects to be announcing the first OHTs deemed ready to implement the Ontario Health Team model later this fall.

For further information on the OHT-N proposal, and the Ontario Health Team model, please see the new OHT-N website, launched following the Northumberland site visit, at www.ohtnorthumberland.ca, or call or email the team via the contacts listed below.