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Abstract:

Ontario’s health system faces persistent challenges in access to primary care, hospital capacity and workforce availability. Addressing these pressures requires coordinated action across all areas of the health system. This presentation highlights Ontario’s approach to improving access and patient flow – bringing together provincial performance trends across the continuum of care, examining Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan, and looking at the multi-year Access and Flow Action Plan focused on reducing alternate level of care pressures through community capacity investments and improved discharge processes. It also reviews surgical recovery, emergency department improvement initiatives, mental health and addictions care, workforce planning and digital initiatives supporting access to care.

Biography:

Chris Simpson, MD FRCPC FACC FHRS FCCS FCHRS FCAHS, is Executive Vice-President (Acute and Hospital Based Care) and Chief Medical Executive at Ontario Health – the provincial Crown agency that oversees and operates Ontario’s health care system. He is also a Professor of Medicine and a cardiologist specializing in heart rhythm disorders at Â鶹¹ÙÍø and Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

He was Chief of Cardiology at Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s for 10 years before being appointed Vice-Dean (Clinical) at Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s Health Sciences. During his tenure, he stepped in as Acting Dean and Acting CEO of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization (SEAMO) for 6 months.

He has served as an American College of Cardiology governor, and on the boards of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Cardiac Care Network, CorHealth and the Council of Canadian Academies. He chaired the Canadian Wait Time Alliance (WTA) for 5 years, ending in 2016. The WTA developed evidence-based wait time benchmarks for over 1000 surgeries, procedures and specialty consultations.

He was the 2014-15 President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), championing seniors care and helping to guide the profession through changes in Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and cannabis legislation. He went on serve as Canadian representative to the World Medical Association (2017-19).

He served as president of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) from 2020-2021, during which time the Academy developed scientific assessments on autism and dental care which have served as the foundations for a national strategy on autism and the recently announced National Dental Plan. More recently, he co-chaired a CAHS assessment on the health care workforce commissioned by Health Canada. This work will inform government strategies to address the national health workforce crisis.

Dr. Simpson’s clinical, academic and policy interests include inherited heart rhythm disorders, cardiac resynchronization therapy, leadless pacing, access to care and wait times, health care workforce planning, and seniors’ care.

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