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The Health
Services Department promotes, protects and enhances the health and
safety of the people of York Region through a wide range of health-related
mandatory and integrated programs and services provided by its six
branches: Public Health, Emergency Medical Services, Long Term Care
and Seniors, Health Information and Planning, Community Development,
and Administrative Services.
Goal: To keep York Region residents healthy through health promotion,
health protection and disease prevention activities.
Achievements:
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A
multifaceted West Nile virus control strategy was implemented,
including extensive public education; mosquito, bird and human
surveillance; and mosquito control activities. For the first
time, larvicide was applied to catch basins as a mosquito control
measure. |
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Although
only four additional flu clinics were offered, the Infectious
Diseases Control Division administered 7,108 more vaccines to
residents
(a 221% increase over 2002) and distributed 295, 609 doses to
York Region physicians (a 134% increase over 2002). |
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The
Healthy Babies, Healthy Children program conducted 10% more
postpartum home visits in 2003 as compared to 2002, and provided
screening, counselling and home visiting support to 10,390 families
with young children. |
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The
number of York Region schools with partially funded Food for
Learning school nourishment programs increased from 6 to 44. |
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Over
4,400 York Region businesses received ongoing health-related
resources through the Workplace Wellness program, an increase
of 48% over 2002. |
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The
first-ever Youth Summit on Cannabis brought together over 300
high school student leaders to discuss the health, social, legal
and political issues around marijuana use. |
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Through
the Food Safety program, 11,141 food premise inspections were
completed. |
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Eat
Smart!, Ontario’s Healthy Restaurant program, recognized
115 York Region establishments for excellence in food safety,
nutrition and non-smoking seating. |
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Health
Services offered the Proton Workshop to local food premises
staff in both English and Cantonese, with 1,297 food handlers
certified in 2003 in safe food handling and sanitation. |
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The
York Region Infant Feeding Study 2002-2003 was completed in
collaboration with seven other health units, offering an assessment
of potential influences on breastfeeding initiation and early
breastfeeding outcomes for York Region mothers. |
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The
anti-idling campaign was launched encouraging residents to reduce
warm-up idling of vehicles and protect the environment. The
York Region Administrative Centre was declared an idle-free
zone. |
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Health
Services led the organization of the York Children’s Water
Festival, educating over 3,500 students on topics related to
water conservation and protection. |
Goal: To support safe and secure communities through the provision
of high quality emergency medical services to York Region.
Achievements:
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York
Region EMS trained an additional 8 paramedics to the Advanced
Care Paramedic (ACP) level, to a total of 56 ACPs in service
in 2003. Advanced Care Paramedics can provide additional, potentially
life-saving procedures to their patients. |
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Two
additional emergency response vehicles were deployed in 2003,
to a total of up to 33 ambulances and response vehicles available
to respond to medical emergencies during busy periods of the
day. |
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Two
additional permanent Paramedic Response Stations were established
in Unionville and King City in 2003, to a total of 17 stations
strategically located throughout the Region. |
Goal: To offer quality programs and services which promote the health,
well-being and independence of seniors and adults requiring long
term care.
Achievements:
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In
2003, the Long Term Care and Seniors Branch provided a continuum
of care and services to the citizens of York Region. These included
over 73,000 long term care facility bed days and in excess of
93,000 day, outreach and supportive housing client days of service. |
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Provincial
funding and approval was secured for an additional 32 long term
care beds at the Newmarket Health Centre. |
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Both
the Newmarket and Maple Health Centres converted to computerized
healthcare records and documentation in 2003. This initiative
resulted in increased funding from the Province and enhanced
documentation standards for the entire care team. |
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The
Newmarket and Maple Health Centres achieved 97% overall good
to excellent client satisfaction rating in customer service. |
Goal: To provide accurate, timely and comprehensive health-related
information to York Region residents.
Achievements:
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A
Measure of Health – York Region Health Status Report 2002
was released in 2003, offering comprehensive health data for
the five year period of 1997-2002. |
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The
Health Connection information line answered 72,459 calls during
2003, an increase of 51% over 2002. Approximately 43% of these
calls were answered and attended to during the SARS outbreak. |
York Region was the second largest epi-centre in North
America for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the
2003 outbreak. With other Regional Departments, York Region hospitals,
police, fire, long term care facilities, and many community, health
and government agencies, the Health Services Department led a comprehensive
response to the SARS Outbreak.
During the
outbreak, 88 York Region residents were diagnosed as probable or
suspect SARS cases. Eight York Region residents died. In addition,
approximately 5,000 York Region residents were quarantined at the
height of the outbreak and over 20,000 contacts (those potentially
exposed to SARS) were investigated.
The SARS outbreak
had a significant impact on the operations of Health Services in
2003. As staff were re-deployed to manage the SARS outbreak, a number
of programs were temporarily suspended or reduced.
It is worthy
to note that Health Services operated the only SARS Assessment Clinic
operated by a Public Health Unit in Canada, in partnership with
the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Markham Stouffville
Hospital.
During the
period of the outbreak, the Health Connection information line fielded
over 26,419 SARS-related calls and manned up to 48 phone lines.
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