A new governance model proposed for the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is getting support from one of its former boards of directors.
The former board at the Sydenham Hospital in Wallaceburg is not objecting to a single corporation and board governing both the Chatham and Wallaceburg hospital sites. The integration replaces three boards and will have 12 directors; one from each of the six wards, one from the First Nations community, and five at large to ensure proper representation of Wallaceburg and other rural communities.
Sheldon Parsons, former chair of the Sydenham Hospital board, says two boards is still their preference but they will get behind the new model.
"We believe that there needs to be a board for Public General and a board for Sydenham to ensure that the two site option and program would continue into the future," says Parsons.
The hospital supervisor says this new model will end the lack of vision and wrong structure that has plagued the hospitals for the last two decades. Rob Devitt hopes to have LHIN approval by December 31 after 30 days of public input, which ends December 18.
Parsons says the former board understands that the province is moving toward a one board model.
"While it's not our preference, we're not going to object to it. We do believe, however, that there are some things that we could bring forward and propose that would go towards the prevention of problems that plagued the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance over at least the last 10 years," Parsons says.
He says the former board is putting forward some ideas, such as community advisory panels, to improve the proposed governance model.
"To supplement the board's work to identify how we can promote better health care services and their delivery across the region but particularly our area across the Sydenham, Bkejwanong and St. Clair service area," says Parsons.