WRHA launches public-private home-care program

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This article was published 06/11/2017 (2914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority formally launched its new home-care program Monday, more than a month after the controversial initiative was first announced.

The “mixed model” program melds public and private health care at a projected cost of $15.7 million over the next three years. As of Monday, patients who no longer need hospital care but are not ready to live unattended at home will be able to use the intensive, short-term Priority Home program while they adjust.

The WRHA expects the program to be phased in by the end of the week. At first, emphasis will be on helping patients discharged from Victoria General Hospital, Grace Hospital, St. Boniface Hospital and Health Sciences Centre. At least 10 people will be referred to the program from those facilities combined each week, although the WRHA plans to widen the referral process to include other sites and the community at large sometime in December.

Priority Home is designed to provide care for a maximum of 90 days. The WRHA is focusing the service on patients who aren’t likely to need home care on a longer-term basis. According to a spokeswoman, that would include people who suffer chronic illnesses such as congestive heart failure who are hospitalized and then require “specific or intensive management” in order to settle back in safely at home.

The transitional home-care program drew substantial criticism when Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen first announced it in late September. Of the $15.7 million for Priority Home, $10.5 million is going to private companies. We Care, which is part of the CBI Health Group and bills itself as “Canada’s largest independently owned home health service” was awarded the WRHA contract in conjunction with ParaMed Home Health Care.

The private company is responsible for supplying health-care aides and other support workers, while the WRHA staffs nurses and occupational therapists. The public-private mix prompted NDP Leader Wab Kinew and union leaders alike to deride Priority Home as a move towards the privatization of health care in Manitoba.

“It’s time this government and the WRHA stop mincing words and start being honest with Manitobans,” Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said at the time. “What they announced today is major: it’s privatizing home care in Manitoba.”

Goertzen dismissed such concerns, saying in September that Priority Home follows the rules as prescribed by the Canada Health Act.

Priority Home launches in conjunction with the WRHA’s new rapid-response nursing services.

The nursing program will function as targeted home support for patients with complex medical conditions in the first few weeks after hospital discharge. The nurses will focus in large part on education, according to the WRHA, by helping with medication, establishing connections with family doctors, home-care services or other community supports.

The rapid-response nurses are starting by focusing on patients being discharged from clinical assessment units and emergency rooms at Grace Hospital, St. Boniface Hospital and Health Sciences Centre.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca