Twenty-six positions at the North East Local Health Integration Network, or LHIN, will be impacted as a result of the Ontario government’s reorganization of the health-care system.
Eleven of the positions being cut are currently filled while 15 more are vacant and none of them provide direct patient care.
Created in 2007, the LHINs are regional authorities that co-ordinate services delivered by hospitals, long-term care homes, home care, community support service agencies, mental health and addiction agencies, and community health centres.
The North East LHIN is one of the largest in the province, responsible for planning, integrating and funding healthcare services for more than 565,000 people across 400,000 square kilometers and five sub-regions including the Manitoulin and Algoma Districts.
The Ontario Progressive Conservatives say that 825 back-office positions will be eliminated across six health agencies and 14 LHINs, which are to be folded into a new super-agency known as Ontario Health.
This past February that the government announced it would fold the LHINs, as well as agencies Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario, Health Shared Services Ontario, Health Quality Ontario, HealthForce Ontario, which recruits doctors and other medical workers, and Trillium Gift of Life, into a super-agency called Ontario Health.
From 30 to 50 Ontario Health Teams are to be introduced to coordinate services such as primary and hospital care, rehabilitative care, home-care and long-term care, among others.
The North East LHIN currently employs about 750 people.
