Patients can then be treated in the most appropriate setting, including being admitted promptly to acute care beds from emergency rooms when required. The bottom line to restructuring is more health services in hospitals, long-term care facilities and in our homes. The HSRC wants to strengthen all links in the health care chain in order to provide more services to meet the needs of our growing and aging population. Our hospitals were built in some cases over 100 years ago when providing health care was very different. Rather than paying for buildings, we need to fund necessary services both within and outside hospitals.
Hospitals have an essential and vital role to play in our health care.
Long-term care, home care and many other services are also vital. By providing appropriate levels of all services so that we are treated in the best setting to meet our health care needs, Ontario will strengthen all links in the health care chain. After restructuring, more services will be available in hospitals offering their services more efficiently and a major increase in services outside hospitals, particularly nursing homes, homes for the aged and home care. In the last ten years, over 11,000 hospital beds have been closed primarily as a result of changing health care practices. The HSRC believes that MORE health services will be provided by hospitals and outside hospitals by reducing excess hospital capacity and duplication.