The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is holding a town hall/open house coming up in Wallaceburg.
The event is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, March 23 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Canadian Belgian Dutch Club.
“To cultivate accessible, transparent and open communication with our community members, CKHA Leadership will be hosting a series of Community Engagement events across Chatham-Kent,” CKHA officials stated.
“These events will give citizens the opportunity to learn more about CKHA’s corporate transformation, financial plan, governance, services and programs, as well the chance to engage with local healthcare leaders one-on-one.”
This will be an opportunity for the community to personally meet the provincially-appointed supervisor, the new CEO and newly hired and appointed vice presidents and medical leadership team.
CKHA is planning on holding other similar events, including:
– Chatham Sunrise Rotary Club – March 21
– Blenheim Rotary Club – March 21
– Media Update – March 22
– Blenheim town hall/open house – April 4
– Chatham town hall/open house – April 19
– Tilbury town hall/open house – May 16
CKHA officials say more public meetings will be held in the future.
The public is also being encouraged to visit askckha.com if they have any questions or feedback regarding the CKHA’s corporate renewal and financial plan.
Conrad Noel, the former vice chair of the Sydenham District Hospital board and the current chair of the Save Our Sydenham (SOS) committee, said he is encouraging all of the 539 former SDH members to attend the March 23 town hall/open house.
“Hopefully we get a full house of people from our area that will attend to make sure they ask the right questions because to me a town hall means that there are opportunities for people to ask questions,” Noel told the Sydenham Current.
“Of course you go to a meeting and they fill you up with all types of slide presentations and documentations and by the time they are finished it is too late to ask your questions. Hopefully we are not going through this game.”
Noel said the SOS committee is hosting a follow-up meeting of their own on Thursday, March 30 at 6 p.m. at the UAW Hall.
“I am asking for people to come back to a second meeting on the following Thursday if they have other questions, to get feedback about how people felt about that meeting so we can respond to their open house community meetings,” he said.
Noel said there are still a lot of lingering questions.
“What happens to the boards? What is is the governance going to be like? This is many many months later and we still don’t know what the governance is going to be like,” he said.
“How well are we going to be represented? Are we looking at five members and one from our area? We have no idea. This has to be clarified.”
