Press Releases

Coordination of Home Care System will Benefit Clients and Workers

Mississauga, May 3, 2006 - Bayshore Home Health is pleased that the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Report issued on May 1, 2006 is aimed at supporting improvements to the home care system with regard to streamlining of service, continuity of care for clients and home care workforce stability.

Of particular benefit is the Ministry’s planned increase to the minimum wage threshold and improved job security for Personal Support Workers, a priority that Bayshore has advocated in numerous proposals and presentations over a number of years. Across Canada, Bayshore Home Health employs over 3,000 Personal Support Workers who provide hundreds of thousands of hours of care to Canadians, care which permits many of our clients to remain in their homes rather than relying on more expensive and less desirable institutional care. We are pleased that Bayshore has been an industry leader in compensation and benefits we provide to our Personal Support Workers and that we have already worked proactively with our employees to create a healthy work environment of respect, leadership, and collaboration.

As a service provider to over half of Ontario’s Community Care Access Centres (CCACs), Bayshore Home Health also welcomes the Ministry’s announced intention to establish systems to harmonize the procurement process, performance expectations and reporting mechanisms across CCACs, so that administrative functions in home care can be reduced and increased resources can be focused on direct client care. This focus on more standard systems among CCACs will be essential to support the work of the Local Health Integration Networks.

We also welcome the intention to establish mechanisms to recognize quality service providers with longer contracts, thereby decreasing disruptions to home care clients and increasing stability of employment for Personal Support Workers.

The Ministry’s stated intention to support innovations in home care service provision and to fund research into effective home care approaches will also help us work together with CCACs and Local Health Integration to improve quality of home care in Ontario.

As a major care provider in the Ontario home care system, Bayshore Home Health is committed to working with CCAC’s, OACCAC, LHINs, and the Ministry to operationalize the recommendations that support and strengthen the system for the future.

Bayshore Home Health has been providing home and community health care services to Canadians since 1966. It is a Canadian-owned company with more than 30 offices and over 5,000 employees across the country.

Bayshore Home Health’s core services are nursing, personal care, home support and companion services, which it delivers privately as well as through government care programs, personal and group insurance coverage, and workplace safety insurance. Its specialty services include temporary staffing of health care professionals, pharmaceutical product support services, health education programs, community infusion clinics and dialysis centres.

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