Challenges posed by health care restructuring in Ontario.

Abstract

In the flurry of activity surrounding health care restructuring—the hospital closures, the laying off of staff, the transfer of patients—rarely are the records given any consideration. Yet it is the records of an institution or activity that tell its history and ensure its memory into the future. This paper will address the challenges that health care restructuring pose in Ontario, though it will also consider the situation in Alberta which underwent similar health care restructuring in the mid-1990s. Although restructuring affects the whole health care system including private and psychiatric hospitals, chronic, and long-term care facilities, public hospitals are the primary focus since these institutions are the most visibly affected, and the ones with which the general public identifies the most.