The hospital’s Women’s Health Community Advisory Panel identified access to health services for people without health insurance as an urgent community health concern for the Greater Toronto Area. Supported by the WCH Equity Vision, a Collaborative Task Force was formed in April 2007 to study access to services for uninsured and undocumented people.

As membership mushroomed, the Collaborative Task Force grew into the WCH Network on Uninsured Clients. Members come from across the health-care and social services sectors, and include health-care professionals; community health and social services providers; academics; researchers; legal, policy and administrative staff; grassroots activists and people with lived experience.

Many of the hospitals in the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (TCLHIN) identified this issue in their 2009 health equity plans, and the LHIN is working on this issue at a systems level.

For more information about our work on uninsured clients, see the following documents:

• Terms of Reference
• Ontario Hospital Association – HealthAchieve 2008 Presentation
• Research Conference on Healthcare for the Undocumented and Uninsured: Systems, Policies, Practices and their Consequences, February 12, 2010.
• Highlights: February 12, 2010 Research Conference on Healthcare for the Uninsured and Undocumented.
• Tackling Barriers to Health Equity: The Uninsured. Presentation by Linda Gardner at March 4, 2010 Ontario Hospital Association conference on Health Equity and Diversity: Ensuring Quality in Healthcare.
• Qualitative Research Project on Health-Care Access for the Uninsured
  • Fact Sheet #1: Common Health Issues of the Undocumented and Uninsured
  • Fact Sheet #2: Barriers to Accessing Healthcare
  • Fact Sheet #3: Policy Recommendations
  • Fact Sheet #4: Information Needs