I have been working with many researchers, practitioners, professional and community networks, LHINs, public health leaders, and governments on how to embed equity in health care planning, organization and delivery.
This has covered a wide range of issues: from analyzing hospital equity plans and developing sector wide Community Health Centre plans; through specific issues such as equitable access to rehabilitation services or realizing the potential of tools such as Health Equity Impact Assessment; to key system drivers such as performance measurement/management, and the necessary equity indicators and standards; to thinking about how to integrate population health into issues well beyond health care such as social assistance reform and cuts to refugee health care programs.
In all this work, one common success condition has emerged: we need a clear overall sense of what success looks like – of equity and population health as essential features of a high performing health system, as Ontario’s Excellent Care for All Act envisions – and of how to get there – a comprehensive equity strategy. A solid overall strategy is the essential context and grounding for acting effectively on specific equity challenges and issues. While I have worked on quite detailed strategic frameworks, I and partners thought a short overview would be useful. So here is my five page, seven point Health Equity Roadmap.