Public health needs in Windsor-Essex are unique to the region, says WECHU

Merging five regional health units between Windsor and Oxford County would do little to address the "unique needs" of individual communities, according to the CEO of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

A proposal from the province would see health units in Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent, Middlesex-London, and Lambton merge with Southwestern Public Health to become one public health entity.

On one hand, Theresa Marantette acknowledges a regional merger would create more "synergies" for medical experts between Windsor and Oxford County, working together to address public health issues.

However, she adds the medical needs of residents in Windsor-Essex are specific to the region.

"We do have unique programs and services, such as our migrant farm population, the number of beaches that we have in our area, the mosquito population that we have with Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus which is not found in any other health unit region," she said.

"We hope all of those issues remain addressed at a local level."

WECHU is still waiting on more details to see exactly how this regional merger will work. Marentette said she hopes it won't threaten the health unit's existing programs, including "home-visiting" for new mothers, migrant farm inspections and students vaccinations.

Marentette also has concerns about what a merger would mean for the Windsor-Essex health unit's funding model, which historically received 75 per cent from the province and 25 per cent by the municipality.

However, that would change under the merger, since one health unit between Windsor and Oxford County would serve more than one million people.

"By the time the regionalization does occur, that funding model between the province and the municipality would change to 60 per cent province, 40 per cent municipality," said Marentette, adding WECHU's board of health would also be altered under the merger.

Reza Deber, a professor at the University of Toronto, specializes in health policy and health care spending. She said the merger is "very worrying."

"One of the things they say about public health is that if it's working properly, it's invisible. You don't see it," said Deber, pointing to the 2000 outbreak of Walkerton E. coli and the 2003 outbreak of SARS as two examples where that broke down.

"The fact that [the province is] combining it with budget cuts and with the exception that local governments are going to pick up the slack and forcing a reorganization so you don't have the liaison with the local governments in the way there has been is very concerning."

The province has made it clear that the goal behind this amalgamation of health units is to save money. For Deber, it's possible that those extra funds could result in an improvement to front line services.

But she adds more health units are needed to prevent a backlog in administrative paperwork.

Chatham-Kent health unit says merger weakens ability to meet needs 

The Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit is hopeful that the merger will build relationships with neighbouring health units, according to a statement from its board.

But according to Chatham-Kent Health Unit board chair Joe Faas, merging different health units together "weakens their overall ability to meet local needs in a way that our community requires those needs to be met."

"Existing complications around things like transportation and access could be magnified when the service area is expanded so significantly in such a short period of time," said Faas.

He adds, if the merger takes place, the work of CK Public Health may go unrecognized and, in turn, undervalued.

"The general public may not always be quick to recognize the work that is being done in public health because when it is properly funded with the right supports in place, it runs the way that it is supposed to and the system as a whole is nearly invisible," he said.

The Chatham-Kent health unit adds it will need an additional $900,000 during the 2020/2021 budget year, since the province will only be funding 70 per cent of its services in starting April 1, 2020. In the following year, the province's contribution will drop ten per cent.