Patients First Position Paper

We are concerned that older Ontarians were not a focus of this consultation process, nor included in any significant way in the Patient’s First discussion document. This is despite the Ministry’s commitment to a Seniors Strategy that prioritizes access for seniors to community based supports to enable them to live at home for as long as possible.  Given that seniors consume almost 50% of the health care budget and more than 60% of acute care hospital days (including a significant proportion of ALC days), we contend that the priorities of the provincial Seniors’ Strategy should feature prominently in the subsequent plan, demonstrating health system planning reflective and  proportional to the position seniors occupy as health care consumers.