It seems clear the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has chosen sides in a dispute between Wellington County’s two hospital boards.
On Aug. 13, the LHIN ordered the boards of the two hospital corporations, currently linked through a decade-old alliance that involves sharing a CEO and a number of key staff, to amalgamate by Nov. 30. This was the preferred direction of the board of Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus.
The other board in the equation, North Wellington Health Care (NWHC), defeated a LHIN-initiated motion to proceed with amalgamation and instead suggested “a more robust hospital alliance” that would provide “a supportive joint approach” to governing health care in the region, rather than a full amalgamation.
According to NWHC chair Tom Sullivan, the board is concerned about services and equipment “migrating” to Groves and the potential impact that could have on the viability of its hospitals in Palmerston and Mount Forest – certainly valid concerns one would hope a local hospital board would be guarding against.
For his part, Groves board chair Howard Dobson said the proposed amalgamation “fits in well with both the LHIN and the province’s approach to integration.”
The primary issue leading the LHIN to get involved is a dispute over the contract of the alliance CEO and president, which expires next March. NWHC made it clear they wanted to check out all the options on the market. Although they initially thought Groves leadership was on the same page, Sullivan says the NWHC was essentially blind-sided by the former’s decision to “unilaterally” hire the CEO “as their sole employee” once the joint contract runs out next spring.
Groves perspective on the situation is unclear, as Dobson, citing the confidentiality of personnel issues, declined comment.
Interestingly, a report by the consulting firm KPMG lists among the root causes of the current problems with the alliance “a perception that one party to the hospital alliance agreement has the advantage over the other or is moving ahead at the expense of the other.”
While the context of the report is designed to make that perception seem dubious, that would appear, based on the only evidence being offered, to be exactly the case.
To implement its direction to amalgamate, the LHIN has appointed a facilitator – not surprisingly also from KPMG – to work with the boards on integration to a single board. However, Sullivan says the NWHC board is holding out hope the solution can be “more than just an amalgamation” and it can maintain some degree of autonomy for the northern hospitals.
Local residents would be well advised to watch very carefully as this process plays out. After all, “amalgamation” and “autonomy” are not exactly homogenous concepts.
Perhaps the most disconcerting element of this whole drama is that LHIN officials felt compelled to stress, “the WWLHIN is not considering closing Palmerston, Louise Marshall and/or Groves hospitals, nor does the LHIN have the authority to do that.”
Given there hasn’t been much talk about closing hospitals in southwestern Ontario since the darkest days of Mike Harris and the “Common Sense Revolution,” one has to wonder: where did that come from?
