April 10, 2006

TORONTO - The McGuinty government has appointed 39 new board members to the province’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), Health and Long-Term Care Minister George Smitherman announced today.

"Patients across the province will be well served by these board members," Smitherman said. "As leaders in their communities, they bring diverse experience and in-depth knowledge of local health care needs, which will be a tremendous asset to the LHINs as they work with health care providers, stakeholders and the public to plan health care services at the local level."

LHINs are local health organizations which will plan, integrate and fund local health services – including hospitals, community care access centres, home care, long-term care, mental health, community health centres as well as addiction and community support services – for a specific geographic area.

"LHINs have been created because local health services are best planned at the local level, by people who know the needs of the community," Smitherman said. "We have built up each of the LHINs further with the addition of more board members who will help to make sure that local needs are emphasized, barriers to accessing care are eliminated, and appropriate quality health care is delivered."

"One of the key reasons that we created LHINs, was to provide a degree of stability and local accountability within our health care system," said Smitherman. "On a provincial level, the government will continue to set strategic directions and standards for high quality, accessible health care across the province."

The board chairs, founding board members and CEOs for the LHINs were announced last June. It is expected that the remaining board members will be named later this spring. Each board will have nine members.

Today’s initiative is part of the McGuinty government’s plan to build a health care system that delivers on three priorities – keeping Ontarians healthy, reducing wait times and providing better access to doctors and nurses.

For further information :

Members of the general public : (416) 327-4327, or (800) 268-1154

Backgrounders – 1-2 pages each, PDF Format Erie St.Clair LHIN South West LHIN Waterloo Wellington LHIN Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN Central West LHIN Mississauga Halton LHIN Toronto Central LHIN Central LHIN Central East LHIN South East LHIN Champlain LHIN North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN North East LHIN North West LHIN

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