The Sydenham District Hospital is pleased with the investigator’s report sent to the Ministry of Health, and they support the appointment of a supervisor for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. However, they don’t know if their board will even exist by next week.
The SDH board met in open session at Wallaceburg’s hospital on Wednesday evening, just a day after the report written by Bonnie Adamson was released.
“I read it many, many, many times and as I read through I found myself not licking too many wounds,” said Sheldon Parsons, the chair of the SDH board.
“I think this report treats this board, these communities and the health care we provide very well. There are some issues that we would like to point out and not in a critical way, but in a constructive way. We will be preparing in fact in our in camera session later on we are going to be discussing a response to send to the Minister.”
Parsons added: “It goes something like the following… first of all we support the appointment of the supervisor and agree with most of the findings in the final report. We look forward to a fresh, fair, equal and barrier free employment environment for our staff at those sites. We look forward to a patients first professional caring health care integrated both horizontally and vertically. We are prepared to recommend the changes to our corporate structure but we do have some comments on that.”
Sweeping power for supervisor
Parsons said while the SDH board does support the appointment of a supervisor for CKHA, the power of the supervisor will trump that of all three CKHA boards and senior staff.
“If a supervisor is appointed and I have no reason to believe he or she won’t be, this board will have no powers other than that assigned by the supervisor next Thursday,” he said. “The members of our corporation will have no authority and no powers as of the same day unless the supervisor sees fit to continue those.”
Parsons said the SDH board will do there best to indicate to the supervisor the value they offer.
“The value that this community offers to a building that continues to serve a needed purpose in this community and to the great staff that work day in, day out here and in Chatham to make sure that the health care of all of our communities are satisfied to the best of our abilities.”
Parsons said there is uncertainty surrounding SDH’s role moving forward, if there will be one at all.
“I am not confident that necessarily all the faces around this table are going to be here a week from now,” he said.
“I would hope we are. I think we put a lot forward to the value of the community. As many have said, we have been on the right side. We have been doing the right thing and we hope that the supervisor recognizes that but certainly all of us are prepared to take a back seat if that’s what the supervisor decides.”
The Public Hospitals Act indicates the supervisor, which is set to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, would have sweeping powers over all three boards.
“Unless the appointment provides otherwise, a hospital supervisor has the exclusive right to exercise all of the powers of the board and, where the hospital is owned or operated by a corporation, of the corporation, its officers and members of the corporation,” the Public Hospitals Act reads.
Vindication for SDH board
Members of the SDH board expressed their thoughts about the investigator’s report, and all said they felt a level of vindication with much of the report.
“I think the report is very favourable to SDH,” said Conrad Noel, vice chair. “Everything we have been saying, everything that has been talked about in all the reports, the community involvement, people involved in the interviews… it’s time now to protect our hospital. I think she does a good job of suggesting ways of looking at the different scenarios.”
Herb John, SDB board member, said the investigator’s comments prove the point of various issues the board has been raising for years.
“She didn’t base her investigation on hearsay or any inaccuracies, she based it on solid research, interviews with credible people, including this board, and she came up with a report that really, in my mind, says what we’ve been saying for years has been true,” John said.
Kris Lee, SDH board member, said she was a bit leery at first about the wording of the report.
“I think Miss Adamson has done a very honest job and candid job,” Lee said.
“I believe it takes courage to write some of the things that were in there. It’s not an easy thing to make public. My second fear is when I read this report, I thought the Ministry was going to massage it to a more publicly acceptable language, and I was very pleased to see that Minister Hoskins has put this report out verbatim, has not edited it and I think that also takes courage and integrity to do that. It demonstrates that this government is serious about the issue of transparency and if there is mismanagement and if there are errors that occur, that they will own up publicly.”
George Lung, SDH board member, said he was pleased to see the terms “good faith” and “best efforts” used multiple times in Adamson’s report.
“In terms of vindication, that is something we’ve been saying for quite a few years,” Lung said.
“Even before I came on the board, I was fairly adamant that we’re getting the shaft.”
Rex Isaac, SDH board member, said he was impressed with the individuals who led the investigation.
“I want to thank the team that was part of this process, the calibre of the people that were doing this investigation, if you read in the report it has highlighted credentials, were just top-notch,” he said.
Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley, former chair of the SDH board, said he was happy to see the results of the report.
“I knew we were doing the right thing then, and I know we’re doing the right thing today and the vindication is very good,” he said.
“These are some of the important points I think, for example Sydenham District Hospital Emergency Department volume is 17,000 visits, as we all knew, there is 29 rural hospitals in Ontario that has fewer visits. So forget the low volume stuff at SDH. They also found no evidence that would support any concerns about quality and safety at our Emergency Department… and the other two boards failed to recognize the vital role that Sydenham District Hospital Emergency Department plays in the community of Wallaceburg, Walpole Island and the surrounding area.”
Watch for more on the story.
More coverage:
– CKHA President & CEO responds to damning report
– Investigator’s report blasts CKHA leadership
– Health Minister: ‘Hospital services are now in jeopardy’
