Launch of the Minister’s PFAC Chair Blog
I’m excited to be sharing my first blog post as the Chair of the Minister’s Patient and Family Advisory Council for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. This blog will cover many topics over the next couple of years, with a focus on patient engagement in health care system renewal, health policy development and health program/project design in Ontario.
I plan to be writing and posting often, and hope to share posts from guest authors on this blog, as well as topics that some of you might be interested in sharing with me.
Today, I simply want to introduce myself to you and what my role is all about.
Why I am here
In Ontario, expanding patient engagement is a key commitment included in the Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care.
What does this mean?
It means the establishment of a Council to provide patient perspectives and advice on strategic health policy priorities to the Minister is embedded in Ontario’s legislation as a result of Bill 41, the Patients First Act. It also means that all 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) must establish one or more patient and family advisory committees.
Over the past year, a small team within the ministry has been working hard to pull together the Council members and to recruit a Chair for the Council. It has been a long process and I am very pleased to have been selected as Chair.
(If you like, you can learn more about me here).
I am passionate about all aspects of the patient experience, patient/family engagement in health care, the role of patient/family advisors, patient/family leaders, and patient/family decision makers in health care.
This is an important movement that is not new. Patient engagement is gaining ground in areas of patient experience in health care settings, quality improvement, patient safety, policy, research and more.
Patient engagement resides on a continuum and, with increasing frequency, we are seeing not only patient advisory councils being formed at our local hospitals, but patients and families in leadership and decision making roles.
The Council is the first ministerial appointed council in Canada that will work directly with the senior leadership at the ministry, and will report to the Minister.
What I’ll be doing
There are three priority areas as part of my role as Chair:
- Support the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care with leadership and strategic advice on strengthening and expanding patient engagement across the health care system in Ontario.
- Provide leadership, guidance and support to the Council and Secretariat team.
- Work in collaboration with the network of patient/family/caregiver advisors and organizations across Ontario, including the patient and family advisory committees of our 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
Our Team
In addition to my role, the ministry team has conducted an extensive search to select 15 people from across the province to be members of our PFAC.
These individuals will be reflective of the population of our province and come from many different backgrounds, cultures, ages, and experiences.
They will be meeting regularly to provide their advice, feedback, perspectives and opinions on a patient centered health care system in Ontario that respects patient and family partnership in policy and program design.
I am excited to work together with them to set out the priorities we would like to take on as a Council.
Our Council Secretariat will be supporting both myself and the Council members in our work. This is a passionate group of public servants with great experience in patient engagement, community engagement, and policy/program design. We are already a tight team, and I hope to introduce you to them as part of a future blog post (stay tuned!).
How you can get involved
I recognize that I am one individual in Ontario with my own experiences with the health care system. My role is to be the conduit for patients and families, and to ensure our ‘voice’ is heard at the executive leadership tables of the ministry.
I plan to engage as many of you as are interested in our work, to share with you opportunities to participate, to highlight how our work is proceeding, and to report back to you on what we have accomplished.
You can visit www.ontario.ca\patientengagement now to submit your name to our Patient and Family Advisory Pool. (We have already posted our first survey about the Ontario Drug Benefit program).
You can also follow me on Twitter or check out #ONPFAC. Follow along with the ministry of health.
Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog for regular updates.
If you have questions or comments please feel free to ask them. I will answer to the best of my ability.
If you have topics you’d like me to write about, please share them below in the comments section.
Thanks everyone!
Julie
