Board Chair Message - December 2005

Our Hospital Accountability Agreement with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MoHLTC) will soon be signed. Congratulations are in order to those people who helped us achieve this. It is a significant accomplishment. In fact, it is nothing short of amazing - given our limited resources. So far, no patient care services have been cut. Suggestions on improving efficiencies came in from all over the organization. The ideas worked.

I want people to know how proud we are of our healthcare teams, who worked diligently to accomplish this. In addition, I want our MoHLTC officials to acknowledge that when we ask for more resources to serve people with acute care needs, it is not because we are inefficient - by all accounts - we are highly efficient! We have letters from the Ministry giving evidence to this. We simply are asking for support to serve our patients and families. This support is needed because we contend that our region is different from the rest of the province.

Consider this: a comment heard during a CBC Radio One interview (Nov. 21) in Thunder Bay recently with Dr. Allan Hudson, “Wait-time” advisor to the Minister of Health, George Smitherman. The comment speaks directly to my point. Dr. Hudson said, “Every LHIN (Local Health Integrated Network) I go to tells me they’re unique, which is not quite true, except for this one. This one is unique. You know, issues like distance, weather, Human Resources, and so on. This region is unique. I mean, I can cover most LHINs from Toronto, but this one I need to get up here and really understand what the issues are…we need to pay attention”.

It is comments like this from Minister of Health’s own advisor, Dr. Hudson, who is himself a neurosurgeon and former CEO of Cancer Care Ontario, that encourages me to want to speak out against inequities. Our patients deserve the best. We want the Ministry to admit to our “uniqueness”. We want them to recognize that our situation is not like that of Southern Ontario where larger hospitals are spread around. In Southern Ontario, when one hospital can’t handle volumes or provide certain services, people are often shuffled to another site close by. I commend Dr. Hudson for speaking the truth about our situation.

This is one of the reasons our Board of Directors met a few days ago. We are mapping out a strategy that will be a win-win for everyone. We will be fiscally responsible, delivering the right service at the right time to our patients while our expectation is that the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will be creative with proper financial support for physicians and healthcare workers. For example, we want support for orphan patients, the needed resources to treat our regional patients, all the while being diligent and transparent in our activities.

A nice Christmas gift would be full support from our Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Until next year, have a great festive season. Thanks again for your support.

Sincerely,

Ron Nelson, Chair
Board of Directors

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