The statistics are startling: patients with the greatest health needs – largely seniors and those with complex conditions – make up five per cent of the population, but use about two-thirds of Ontario’s health-care dollars.
So when it comes to finding ways to save money in the province’s ever-expanding health care budget, it makes a lot of sense to look closely at these people. Guelph, fortunately, is one of 19 communities chosen by the province to be part of the Health Link project – a pilot project that aims to deal with the issue of the unbalanced use of health-care resources.
Of the estimated 6,000 high-needs patients in Guelph, the local Health Link team estimates maybe half of them could be making better use of health-care resources. For example, they tell of cases where a patient calls an ambulance to make a trip to the emergency room, rather than making an appointment with a family doctor, because the cost of transportation to the doctor is too high.
There may not be any easy answers here, but this shouldn’t stand in the way of trying.