Two Ontario Health Teams will cover residents in the Ottawa Valley.
The provincial government is providing each team with up to $1.1 million in one-time funding over the next two years.
The Four Rivers Ontario Health Team will include North Grenville, West Ottawa, Northern Lanark County, Arnprior and McNab/Braeside.
The Network 24 Ontario Health Team stretches from Renfrew to Deep River, and includes the communities of Calabogie, Barry’s Bay, Eganville, Cobden, Pembroke, and Petawawa, as well as those along Highway 60 to South Algonquin Township, covering approximately 7,600 square kilometers and 80,000 residents.
More than 70 community health care partners in the area joined forces to develop new models of delivering timely and available patient care that ‘wraps around patients and their families’.
Represented among those community partners are hospitals, long-term care homes, municipalities, paramedic services, primary care providers, agencies that provide social services, palliative care, homecare, community care, mental health and addictions care, and public health — as well as patients and caregivers.
Dr. Declan Rowan, family physician leader in the Pembroke / Petawawa area, says the recent announcement of the new regional health team is the beginning of a process to make healthcare more integrated and accessible for residents.
Dr. Rowan says the announcement of a new Ontario Health Team for our area will result in a regional coordinated health care approach that will connect family physicians and their patients more effectively with hospitals, paramedics, long-term care, mental health services, community health centers, and other parts of the health care sector.
The initial focus of the Ontario Health Team will be on frail seniors and those struggling with mental health and addictions. Helping residents connect with family doctors and primary care teams is another priority.
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Network 24 – Ontario Health Team to cover most of Renfrew County and District