CKHA open house held in Wallaceburg

Rob Devitt, the CKHA Supervisor, speaking to local residents at an open house in Wallaceburg on March 23, 2017 (Aaron Hall)
Rob Devitt, the CKHA Supervisor, speaking to local residents at an open house in Wallaceburg on March 23, 2017 (Aaron Hall)

Hope and optimism were common themes on Thursday evening during an open house in Wallaceburg with local hospital leadership.

The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance invited the public to the upstairs portion of the CBD Club, to meet one-on-one with the revamped senior leadership team, many of the new physician leaders and with the provincially-appointed supervisor.

“Everyone is nice,” Wallaceburg resident Fab Van Raemdonck told the Sydenham Current at the meeting.

“You can tell they have no intention of closing our hospital. They want to improve it, with little steps of course. Whatever they can afford. I am very, very hopeful.”

A trio of elderly residents who attended the open house, and chose to remain anonymous, said they would have preferred a more standard presentation/town hall-style meeting, as opposed to the walk through format.

However, the local residents were quick to acknowledge the CKHA staff’s accessibility, helpfulness and eagerness to answer their questions.

Van Raemdonck echoed these statements.

“It would have been nice, and I already mentioned it to quite a few of them, it would have been nice if we were sitting down and they spoke to us,” she said.

“I think the older people probably would have liked that more. I think people see the format and leave, because we have been screwed around so bad, I am sure they went downstairs thinking that, but you know, that’s not the case. They are very nice. They are good. I told them, you need to get it across to the people of Wallaceburg.”

CKHA officials said approximately 140 people attended the open house.

Former Sydenham Board impressed

Kris Lee, left, and Mike Zell chat with new Chief of Staff Dr. Pervez Faruqi (Aaron Hall)
Kris Lee, left, and Mike Zell chat with new Chief of Staff, Dr. Pervez Faruqi (Aaron Hall)

All of the former Sydenham District Hospital board members were in attendance on Thursday.

Kris Lee, a former board member, said she was impressed by the recent announcement of Respiratory Services being expanded at the Sydenham Campus.

“The fact that it was a Wallaceburg doctor who worked in emerge, saw a need, and brought it forward to the leadership team… the leadership team took it seriously, they did a business plan, they did a proactive working relationship with the team of doctors and they came through with the Respiratory Therapist,” Lee said.

“It was not just the fact this it was Respiratory Therapy, which we need, but the fact that they listened to a doctor and took their ideas. I think that was a key.”

Lee said she was also impressed that the internal controls audit was made public.

“It has got their gaps in it,” Lee said.

“It has got the things they need to improve on it and they showed where they didn’t do well. You know this would never have happened in the previous last years and that fact that they are willing to show people where the system failed and where they are going to go, I think that’s really, really incredible. They are not sacrificing one for the other. These are really important things.”

Sheldon Parsons, the former chair of the Sydenham District Hospital board, said he’s happy with the direction being taken in the last six months.

“We were certainly hopeful,” Parsons said.

“As a result of the investigator’s report and the supervisor appointment, we were very hopeful that it would be good news for this community and the communities that are serviced by Sydenham. As all of those decisions were coming out, they reaffirmed our positiveness about where we were going and how things were being improved.”

Parsons said the former board is happy with the job done to this point by Rob Devitt, the supervisor for the CKHA.

Parsons said they have met multiple times with Devitt and Ken Deane, the interim CEO, and have appreciated their openness to input from the former board.

“We will continue to meet as a former board until we know where the governance end of it is going,” he said.

“We strongly believe that there should be three boards. If we collapse to one board, then there is the danger that the culture will return and things will revert to the way they were. The way they were was bad. Worse than we even believed them to be sitting at the board level. We would hate to see it go back.”

Parsons said the open house on Thursday was a different way of doing things.

“I think it is good for the amount of people we had tonight,” he said.

“If we would have had many more people, there would have been line ups at each and it wouldn’t have been as informative as I think tonight was. I think for the number of people and what they wanted to get across, it was successful. We will have to wait and see what the public think. If there is any reactions to it or negative reactions to it. However, we don’t quarrel one iota with where health care has been going for the past six months.”

Supervisor happy with outcome of open house

Rob Devitt told the Sydenham Current he was happy with the outcome and turn out of the CKHA’s first open house.

“I think this is great,” he said.

“Our whole thought was to connect with citizens in the community. I can’t tell you how many people I have spoken to. It’s been lots. Really good questions. There seems to be a real appreciation for what we have been doing and the direction we are moving in.”

Devitt added: “I think people are understanding now as we talk to them why it is one step at a time. Very methodical. It has been very, very positive and I am glad people have come out. I am glad they have been very frank with me. Nobody has been pulling any punches and I kind of like that.”

Devitt said there were a couple of common themes to the questions he received.

“There is obviously a lot of pent up frustration about how people think things have gone over the years and I get that,” he said.

“There is a great interest in what we are doing. Everybody when we go through things like how the financial situation evolved and the results of the controls audit, people are both appalled but nodding in that they realize we are doing the right thing in terms of what we are doing.”

Devitt added: “I have heard great feedback in terms of the investment we announced this week in terms of Respiratory Services and our clarity that we are focusing on a two-site Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. That is the vision we are working on. We have now got to figure out how to realize it and that’s where the facility planning is going to help. It is going to be crucial, but that’s the place to start because that’s what the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is.”

Devitt said he was impressed with the questions, the interest and the buzz.

“I am also really proud and excited for the doctors who have come out,” he said.

“It’s not like they aren’t busy enough and yet here they are talking to people and answering questions. I think it is great.”

The CKHA has scheduled similar open house events in Blenheim, Chatham and Tilbury in the coming weeks.

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.

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