Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)

Article posted December 10, 2011

Please visit the Mississauga Halton LHIN website at www.mississaugahaltonlhin.on.ca/ for more information and for their recently issued Report to the Community for 2011.

The following will provide an overview of the Mississauga Halton LHIN and quotes extensively from their website.

The Mississauga Halton LHIN is one of 14 not-for-profit corporations which were created by the Province of Ontario to work with local health providers and community members to determine the health service priorities of our regions. LHINs plan, integrate and fund local health services, including:

  • Hospitals
  • Community Care Access
    Centres
  • Community Support Services
  • Long-term Care
  • Mental Health and Addictions
    Services
  • Community Health Centres.

LHINs believe that a community’s health needs and priorities are best understood by people familiar with the needs of our communities and the people who live there, not from those in offices hundreds of miles away.

Prior to the formation of LHINs, health care services in Ontario were fragmented and many health care providers delivered care in isolation. Patients and their loved ones were forced to make their own way through a very complex health system as they moved from one health service provider to another.

LHINs were created to change all that. In March 2006, the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006 transformed the way our health care system is managed.

While LHINs do not directly provide services, their mandate is to plan, integrate and fund health care services. LHINs oversee nearly two-thirds of the $37.9 billion health care budget in Ontario.

The health care system belongs to you; you are the ones who depend on it and who pay for it. Through your LHIN, you now you have the opportunity to get involved in the health care conversation, which gives you a chance to participate in decisions about the health care system in your community.

LHINs want to hear from you! LHINs want to hear about the needs and priorities for health care in our communities. Across all the LHINs in the province, they have set up a number of ways to invite you to become involved – from open board meetings to open houses. Check with your LHIN to see how you can become involved and make your voice heard.