Local health team releases strategic plan

The Brantford Brant Norfolk Ontario Health Team has released a strategic plan that will guide it to 2026.

The team is a formal partnership between 19 local health service providers that collectively provide care to about 200,000 people across Brantford, Brant, Norfolk and the surrounding communities.

The strategic plan will “guide how these organizations will build a more connected healthcare system centered on patients, families and caregivers who use the system,” said a news release.

The plan was developed in consultation with the partner organizations, multiple other community collaborators, local primary care providers and more than 500 members of the community.

The five strategic directions are to advance health equity and access, improve care coordination and excellence, strengthen collaboration and engagement, support priority populations, and enhance cooperational effectiveness.

“The plan will build on (the team’s) successes to date, which range from those that are easy to recognize, such as the number of local primary care providers now offering online appointment bookings and a dementia resource team in local emergency departments, to those that are more behind the scenes, such as the development of a seamless navigation service with the provincial resource Health811.”

Health Connect Ontario replaced the former Telehealth Ontario, allowing people to call 811 or visit the website 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get health advice, help navigate health services and find information.