Ministère de la Santé et des Soins de longue durée (French) | |
Government ministry overview | |
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Formed | 1882 (current name since June 17, 1999) |
Preceding Government ministry |
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Jurisdiction | Government of Ontario |
Headquarters | 80 Grosvenor Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Minister responsible |
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Website | www |
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is the Government of Ontario ministry responsible for administering the health care system and providing services to the province of Ontario. The current minister is Eric Hoskins.
The Ministry also regulates hospitals and nursing homes; operates psychiatric hospitals and medical laboratories; and co-ordinates emergency health services for the Province.
The Ministry once operated ambulance services outside of major cities in Ontario, but the services were off-loaded to municipalities circa 1998.
The Public Health Act of 1882 created the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, as it was originally known, and which was the first permanent health care administrative body in the Province. In 1925 it became the Department of Health. In 1930, the Department of Hospitals was established under the direction of the first Minister of Health; that Department became a division of the Department of Health in 1934.
Insured hospital services and insured physicians' services, introduced in 1959 and 1966 respectively, were combined under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in 1972. The Department of Health became the Ministry of Health in 1971, and then the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in June, 1999.
Note: This is not a complete list
The Ministry of Health was renamed the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in 1999, and subsequently Elizabeth Witmer was the final Minister of Health and the first Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.