Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene To Be Divested To Penetanguishene
General Hospital
- McGuinty Government Responds To Community Call For A Local Solution
TORONTO, Aug. 28
The Ontario government has approved a plan to transfer the regional
and provincial mental health programs of the Mental Health Centre
Penetanguishene (MHCP) to the board of the Penetanguishene General
Hospital (PGH).
The move is part of the overall governance solution for health care
services in the Midland-Penetanguishene area that was proposed by
Dr. Kevin Smith, supervisor for the Huronia District Hospital (HDH).
The restructuring also responds to the community's request to Dr.
Kevin Smith to ensure a local solution that includes no job loss
and no loss of health care workers and services from the region.
All MHCP hospital services, facilities and jobs will remain in the
local communities, and all employees will remain in the same physical
locations.
Today's announcement means that work can begin to realign existing
hospital programs and services from Penetanguishene General Hospital
to the Huronia District Hospital.
The divestment of MHCP will move forward with a targeted completion
of December 15, 2008.
QUOTES
"This is a step in the right direction for the people of Midland
and Penetanguishene," said David Caplan, Minister of Health
and Long-Term Care.
"This restructuring helps to address the need for cooperative
service delivery and governance in the region."
"These structures will ensure that the communities will not
have to revisit issues of integration or governance in the foreseeable
future. This will mean the capable staff of the hospitals can focus
entirely on their important role of delivering the best possible
patient care," said Dr. Kevin Smith, supervisor for Huronia
District Hospital.
"This plan is in keeping with our mandate to work with members
of our community to integrate health services and service delivery,
to make health services more accessible, and to help citizens and
their families achieve better health," said Jean Trimnell,
Chief Executive Officer, North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration
Network.
"This is positive news. The board of Penetanguishene General
Hospital is pleased to continue its local service and excited to
be moving into the mental health field," said Carol Lambie,
Chief Executive Officer, Penetanguishene General Hospital. "Not
only is the plan a local solution but it represents an opportunity
to carry on Catholic health care locally and benefit all stakeholders,
including patients, staff, the local communities, and Ontario's
health care system."
"This is great news for Huronia District Hospital," said
Dr. Alan Stewart, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Huronia District
Hospital. "The approved plan celebrates and recognizes the
important history of the Grey Sisters and demonstrates a willingness
to do what's best for the community and the overall North Simcoe
Hospital Alliance, by keeping both buildings open and maintaining
local hospital services in Midland and Penetanguishene," added
Stewart.
QUICK FACTS
• The province began divesting provincial psychiatric
hospitals in 1998.
• Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene (MHCP) is the
10th and last provincial psychiatric hospital to be divested to
the public hospital sector.
• In May 2007, the government announced a plan to replace
the Oak Ridge building that houses the province's only maximum secure
forensic program.
LEARN MORE
Visit North Simcoe Hospital Alliance (http://www.mhcva.on.ca/m1mhcp.htm)
online and learn more about local hospital services.
For public inquires call Service Ontario, INFOline at 1-866-532-3161
(Toll-free in Ontario only)
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For further information: Media Contacts: Steve Erwin, Minister's
Office,(416) 326-3986;
Mark Nesbitt, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, (416) 314-6197
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Greetings all. After a 13-month process we
regret to inform you that all is not resolved.
Where are we now?
• There is a new Minister of Health, The Honourable
David Caplan.
• The hospital now has an acting interim CEO and a
functioning Medical Advisory Committee.
• There have been no public announcements about any
timelines nor has there been a call for board applicants although
action has been announced re: the Mental Health Centre, Penetanguishene.
• Dr Smith presented a secular option involving the
merging of the new hospitals and a new CEO to the Ministry for approval.
He also stated that there will be no corporate membership, no opportunity
to vote at the AGM and an appointed board.
• In response to your wishes, we clarified a position
accepting a community nominating committee who would then select
a new first board that would be ratified by the membership at the
AGM and that corporate membership would continue to exist to maintain
accountability as well as transparency as much as possible.
• We were awaiting a reply.
• Dr Smith replied via the media only with a “compromise”
that was not what the community had requested.. It did not address
the issues raised by the community and continues to revoke the democratic
option.
• The House is in summer recess and will sit again
in early Sept. We expect that a decision will be announced after
that time.
Some Fuller Background
As you will have read in the paper, Dr. Smith suggested a slightly
changed option to be forwarded to the Ministry for implementation.
While it guarantees the secular option it dismisses the corporate
board structure we now enjoy with rights of voting membership. This
“compromise proposal” offered by Dr. Smith seriously
underestimates the intelligence of the citizens of our community.
Dr. Smith offers a model which if adopted will strip the community
of their right to oversee, through their Corporate Board, the governance
of their hospitals. Moreover his proposal for an Advisory Board
is titular at best and manipulative at worst. The opportunity to
strike advisory boards already exists and their function and use
is included in the training manual for all board members.
The ability of these new advisory boards to guarantee transparency
is illogical and their actual function as he describes them offers
nothing new to the community. In fact, the Advisory members whom
Dr. Smith proposes could as our ‘instruments of transparency,’
be excluded from ‘in-camera’ deliberations. The former
board held all discussions for the new direction of the hospital
‘in camera’. In practice, the decision as to what constitutes
a reason for ‘in-camera’ will be made by the Board -
hardly a guarantee for maintaining transparency.
Indeed it was this process of secrecy that spawned the faith-based
proposition that gave rise to the discomfort in our community and
those incidents occurred when we enjoyed the right of accountability
in the form of an HDH corporate membership. It was only by using
our right to vote that this action could have been changed.
In Dr. Smith’s proposal, accountability will be limited to
a Board which will be accountable only to itself. Transparency will
be exercised by the appointed Board when they alone decide to advise
the community. It is difficult to understand why Dr. Smith is so
determined to set aside a democratic process in favour of an autocratic
process unless he really believes that the citizens of this community
are incapable of electing Board members who will act in the best
interests of the Community. Other supervisors have returned the
corporate model after a supervisor intervention. His proposal is
elitist and condescending. The citizens of this community deserve
a better response than that offered.
The Citizens for HDH have taken the wishes of the community as expressed
in several public meetings and suggested a compromise in the interest
of stability which would put in place an appointed nominating committee
drawn from résumés earlier called for by Dr. Smith.
We agree with Dr. Smith that this should neither be a popularity
contest nor a venue for single-issue groups. The selection by this
committee of the first Board of Directors would be based on the
skill-sets established in many public health care documents. That
board would be subsequently ratified by the HDH membership. Thereafter,
Board vacancies would be filled at an AGM meeting of HDH based on
candidates meeting the outlined skill-set.
As far as transparency and accountability are concerned, the community
has indicated clearly that they believe the corporate model is the
most effective model for oversight.
In this regard we are asking for the same rights as any shareholders,
that the corporation should continue to exist, that annual meetings
should continue to be held and that the shareholders should continue
to ratify each new addition to the board.
We are the shareholders of this hospital. We are the volunteers,
the fund raisers, the community partners and the stakeholders. This
new hospital is our hospital and we must ultimately have a say in
its direction.
What is next?
The Ontario Health Coalition has a petition and action plans called
for in our area. See the newspaper for further details.
We have written to the Minister, David Caplan as well as Dr Smith
clarifying once again the position of the Citizens’ group
as well as asking to meet before the house sits.
Please share this information broadly. Print copies
to share with friends , family and neighbours. We must not lose
our commitment to this important community cause. It is important
that we stay well informed and ready for action.
Sincerely,
Diane Greenfield
on behalf of the Citizens' group.
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