Some Ontario PHU (Public Health Unit) mergers

WalterDnes

Please stay away from politics. https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/About/News/2025/01/Public-Health-Unit-Mergers

Effective January 1, 2025, the Ontario Ministry of Health has approved the voluntary merger of nine local public health units (PHUs) into four entities:

Northeastern Public Health, formerly Porcupine Health Unit and Timiskaming Health Unit
Grand Erie Public Health, formerly Brant County Health Unit and Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit
Haliburton Kawartha Northumberland Peterborough Health Unit, formerly Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit and Peterborough County-City Health Unit
South East Health Unit, formerly Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit

Dks01

Not new. The government has been trying to do this for 10 years. They claimed there would be cost savings. The original idea was to merge PHU’s along LHIN lines. That idea died a quiet death over municipal opposition.

Thane_Bitter

Dks01 They claimed there would be cost savings.

So what's the logic/excuse/chosen belief now?
It's unlikely they can shutter offices to save costs because many of these former units service a very large geographical area, for example its a 2-3 hour drive from Timmins to Timiskaming Shores (weather depending), it's easy in theory to dictate that worker A will be transferred to location B but the practicality of that sort of move is questionable and in an area that already typically has few medical workers (doctors, nurses, support staff trained in certain fields) to begin with.

Donoreo

Thane_Bitter So what's the logic/excuse/chosen belief now?

For these sort of things they expect hierarchy to thin, for one. Merge together 3 units into 1 you only have one overall Manager. Yet, they always seem to end up paying 3 times more for them because it is a bigger job.

Dks01

Donoreo and more staff and travel to do the same job. The LHIn’s should have been a lesson on how not to restructure

Dks01

If the province was the single funder, this would have been done. But when municipalities are paying 30% of a PHU budget, they get a say. And they didn’t like the government plans.