Hamilton, February 7th, 2017: Today, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) is releasing Health Transformation: An Action Plan for Ontario, which includes new and exclusive survey data from two of Ontario’s top research firms that polled both OCC members and all Ontarians. After a year of research and consultation, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and the OCC have developed three strategic recommendations to improve Ontario’s health care system.

Additional data released in today’s report, from a survey conducted by the Gandalf Group, suggests that a mere 39 per cent of all Ontarians are confident that the province’s health care system will be able to fund a consistently high level of care in the future. Reflecting the Hamilton Chamber recommendations, half of Ontarians agree that the health care system doesn’t need more money, it just needs to be better managed. With this level of increased uncertainty in Ontario’s health care system, through its membership, the OCC and Hamilton Chamber of Commerce wants to be a productive partner in revitalizing public care. Despite other growing concerns surrounding topics like electricity pricing and climate change, health care sustainability still remains the most important issue for Ontarians.

“Cross-industry collaboration is critical to solving some of the issues faced by Ontario’s health care sector,” said, Keanin Loomis, President & CEO, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce “It is our hope that this action plan will serve as a jumping off point for important discussions on the role of greater collaboration between the public and private sector in Hamilton and demonstrate the value proposition of leveraging technology and commercialized research readiness to generate cost savings while enhancing service delivery within Ontario’s Healthcare budget.” added Loomis.

Over the course of four reports, the OCC’s Health Transformation Initiative has pointed to the overarching theme of making use of private sector expertise as a way to improve Ontario’s health care system. With a vision for a sustainable and prosperous health sector that involves private sector participation, the Hamilton Chamber’s fifth and final report, Health Transformation: An Action Plan for Ontario highlights the top three recommendations that government can implement today:

• Shift Ontario towards a value-based health care system
• Modernize procurement and supply chain processes
• Better integrate Ontario’s technical discoveries and innovations into the public health care system

While the recommendations in this report are directed towards government, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce is also working with a growing public and private sector partnership called the “Synapse Life Science Consortium” to take on a collaborative role in health system reform and drive solutions that will strengthen the economic health of Ontario’s economy and put patients first.

Click here for more survey data information.

A total of 773 OCC members were polled by Fresh Intelligence via an online methodology between October 25th 2016 and November 30th 2016. A total of 1004 Ontarians were polled by The Gandalf Group between December 28th, 2016 and January 3rd 2017. A random probability sample of this size has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

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CLICK HERE to read the full report.

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Media Contact: Huzaifa Saeed | Policy & Research Analyst | Hamilton Chamber of Commerce | t: 905-522-1151 ext: 230 | e: h.saeed@hamiltonchamber.ca

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Synapse Life Science Consortium contact: Alex Muggah | Director, Synapse Life Science Consortium | alex.muggah@synapseconsortium.com |

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