Health Sciences North 'way behind' rest of province

Health Sciences North is “way behind” other Ontario hospitals in terms of becoming an academic health sciences centre, according to a former executive at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

“I can't think of any other organization (in Ontario) that would logically become an academic health sciences centre that hasn't done it already,” Dr. Donald Livingstone said. “So you're catching up. You're way behind.”

Livingstone participated in a public forum at Science North, Nov. 8, focusing on the topic of “creating a health care hub of excellence in Greater Sudbury.”

The CEO of Health Sciences North, Dr. Denis Roy, along with Laurentian University president Dominic Giroux and Northern Ontario School of Medicine dean Dr. Roger Strasser, also participated in the forum, which was attended by roughly 200 people.

Livingstone, the founding partner of Promeus, a company which recruits executives, was a vice-president at Toronto-based Sunnybrook in the 1980s, when it began its journey along the path towards becoming an academic health sciences centre.

While a traditional hospital focuses mainly on patient care, an academic health sciences centre also hosts medical research and trains doctors and other types of medical professionals.

The fact that Health Sciences North, which until last week was known as Sudbury
Regional Hospital, is so behind in becoming a academic health sciences centre is to its detriment, Livingstone said.

While he doesn't think it's too late for the city to move in this direction, he said he laments what the city has missed by not doing so sooner.

“You've struggled for years with recruitment of doctors and health practitioners,” he told reporters gathered at the event.

“You probably haven't been as close to innovative and creative-thinking as you would otherwise be ... I think people would tend to look at problems through a traditional paradigm, rather than looking at it more laterally and creatively, and asking really big questions about how we would do things substantially differently.”

Since his arrival at the Sudbury hospital in 2010, Dr. Denis Roy has made it his mission to transform the institution into an academic health sciences centre.

He is focused on expanding research activities at the hospital, and is building a learner's centre on campus, where future health-care professionals will receive their training.

The hospital was recently renamed Health Sciences North to reflect this new academic health sciences mission, a move which Roy admits has resulted in a community backlash.

“I read blogs and I read letters to the editor,” he said.

“I am aware that this decision has been met with some criticism in the community. Many people have questioned the need for the new name and the expense. By the way, it's $108,000. It may surprise you when you hear me say I agree with the criticism. A hospital should never spend money simply to change the name or logo. But Health Sciences North is an entirely new concept of health care.”

With issues such as long wait times for certain health services and physician shortages, “Clearly, what we have been doing is not working. Change is required in our health care system,” he said. “And change will occur.”

For more on this story, check future editions of Northern Life.

Posted by Heidi Ulrichsen