As the population ages, the province is looking to keep people in their homes longer.
According to the provincial government, the number of seniors in Ontario will double to more than 4 million people in the next 20 years. On Wednesday the province announced $4.43 million for more than a dozen health-care providers in the region to help home-care efforts in hopes that those people can stay out of hospitals.
MPP Bill Mauro (Lib., Thunder Bay-Atikokan) said hospitals stays are the most expensive way to treat people.
Since the Liberal government took power Mauro said the health-care budget has grown from $30 billion to $50 billion.
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Getting resources to community agencies that help people in their homes is one way to try and deliver more efficient health care. "And the pressures are still enormous so we need to find ways for the care to evolve so that we're not going to continually be able to just put money in the system," he said.
More than $1.2 million will be going to the North West Community Care Access Centre to help reduce the amount of time high-risk patients are waiting for personal support workers.
It will also expand the centre's urgent care clinic's hours.
Manager Kristen Shields said the clinic has already seen more than 130 people since it started opening on Saturday and Sunday a little more than a month ago. "There is a huge demand," she said.
The funding will be administered North West Local Health Integration Network.
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