Hospital excited to be a member of one of the first Ontario Health Teams in the Province

On Nov. 29, the Honourable Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, was at the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service’s headquarters to announce the Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team as one the first 24 teams in the province to implement a new model of organizing and delivering health care that better connects patients and providers in their communities to improve patient outcomes.

Said Elliott, “I would like to thank all the health care providers and organizations that helped plan the Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team; there is lots of work to be done, but with their dedication and hard work, we will continue to improve health care in our communities and ensure Ontarians get the care they deserve.”

“This is great news! In the Guelph area, we are building on what we already do well – collaborating to meet the needs of patients. Together, we are able to achieve much more than we can separately,” says Marianne Walker, GGH’s President and CEO and a member of the new team’s Core Partners. “All of us are committed to strengthening our local health system and available services, improve client experiences and ultimately, make the community healthier. While OHTs are being established, community members can be assured their existing health services will remain available and accessible.”

For the first year, the Team’s areas of focus are complex mental health and addictions, palliative care, implementation of integrated primary care teams and governance. The expectation is to implement an integrated system of care with evolving digital health capabilities that follows the patients throughout their health care journey. 

“Much work has been done to get to this point but there’s much more to come,” Marianne says. “As always, we will do our best to keep everyone well informed along the way.“

Find more information about the Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team here.