The West Toronto Ontario Health Team begins to take shape

Health care in Ontario is moving through unprecedented change in an effort to build a modern, sustainable and integrated health care system. As a part of this change 15 collaborative organizations are part of a group that is in the development stage of building the West Toronto Ontario Health Team (WTOHT). The members, to date include:

  • Crosstown Family Health Team

  • Dorothy Ley Hospice

  • Four Villages Community Health Centre

  • Home and Community Care

  • LAMP Community Health Centre

  • Patient and Caregiver Advisor

  • Primary Care Clinical Lead, West Toronto

  •  Reconnect Community Health Centre

  •  Regeneration Community Services

  •  Stonegate Community Health Centre

  •  Storefront Humber Inc.

  • Toronto Public Health

  •  Unity Health, St. Joseph’s Health Centre site

  •  Village Family Health Team

  •  West Park Healthcare Centre

The group represents organizations from across the continuum of care who have been working together to develop the following vision for the provision of care for the populations we serve:

“Our vision is to become one connected system of health and social care for people living and seeking care in West Toronto, for all stages of life.”

In order to move forward the team has developed 10 guiding principles:

  1. We will uphold the principles of equitable community-based care, centered on the population health needs;

  2. We will keep those we serve at the forefront of our planning efforts and ensure the diversity of the population of West Toronto is reflected;

  3. We will be transparent and communicate regularly with each other;

  4. We will act upon the input of the patients and caregivers in ways that demonstrate positive impact;

  5. We will apply ‘systems-thinking’, focusing on the population, and collaborate towards the co-creation of the West Toronto OHT;

  6. We will demonstrate fiscal responsibility and be accountable to patients and community;

  7. We will value all partner contributions;

  8. We will commit our resources as an organization and collectively;

  9. We will respect diverse perspectives and expertise;

  10. We will remain nimble and open to continuous learning.

As with all other ‘in development’ health teams across Ontario we will have the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to move to the full application stage by preparing progress reports for submission to the ministry in January 2020 and then in March we hope to be invited to submit our full application.

While all of this work is occurring in our community you may also be hearing about the amalgamation of 20 health agencies (including the 14 LHINs) to Ontario Health. If you would like more information about that process we would recommend subscribing to Connected Care email updates by visiting http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/news/connectedcare/.

Our goal is to keep our staff, patients, residents and clients updated on a regular basis as we move through the process to becoming an approved Ontario Health Team and aim to provide monthly updates. If you have any immediate questions, concerns or comments please direct them to .

WTOHT