Ontario is starting to merge the province's major health agencies such as Cancer Care Ontario and eHealth under one umbrella and has also fired the CEO's of nine Local Health Integration Networks.
The 14 LHIN's and six health agencies will be consolidated into a new super agency called Ontario Health for an estimated $350 million a year in savings.
As a preliminary step in the process, Health Minister Christine Elliott announced today that five of those six agencies will transfer to Ontario Health as of Dec. 2.
Elliott says the changes will have no impact on patients, and employees will continue to do the same work, but Ontario Health will now be their employer.
The government has said the LHINs will eventually be eliminated entirely, but for now five CEOs will remain on to oversee different regions until the merger is complete.