NE LHIN welcomes new directors to board

As Dr. Colin Germond sees it, one of the biggest challenges with delivering health care in the northeast is making sure that patients in different communities receive equal access to care.

“With this huge geography — a big area and low population density — comes the problem of delivery of services, and making sure that services are equitable across the northeast,” he said.

Germond, the former head of medical oncology at the Regional Cancer Program in Sudbury, is one of three people who have been appointed to the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) in recent months.

He will act as the board’s director for the Sudbury planning area.

Along with Germond, Dr. Ian Cowan, a family physician from North Bay, and Jib Turner, a business owner from Manitoulin Island, were introduced to the media during a board briefing session held May 25 at the Finlandia long-term care facility.

Germond said his experience with the Regional Cancer Program has given him some background in dealing with patients who come from far-flung parts of the northeast, where access to health services is limited. “Our mantra (at the Regional Cancer Program) was always to try to deliver care as close to home as possible,” he said. “I have a lot of experience with that particular aspect of health care delivery ... I’m hoping that this is one of the strengths that I can bring to the board.”

Beyond ensuring equal access to health care, Germond said reducing the numbers of alternate level of care (ALC) patients in hospitals in the northeast is the biggest challenge he foresees in his role on the board.

ALC patients are patients who no longer need acute care, but are still occupying hospital beds because there is no room for them in community facilities such as long-term care homes.

Cowan started his role as the board’s director for the Nipissing planning area in late February. He said he is honoured to have been appointed to the board, which is filled with “talented and hard-working individuals.”

The NE LHIN’s recent decision to move 31 mental health beds from North Bay to Sudbury was a “difficult decision” for the board, he said. Some North Bay citizens have spoken out against the bed transfer. “There was a long process of assessment, and we then came up with a decision,” he said.

Like other areas of the northeast, North Bay is dealing with “bed issues, long-term care issues, emergency department waiting times and wait times for surgeries,” Cowan said.

Turner, president of Turners of Little Current Ltd., said when the NE LHIN was set up about five years ago, he criticized the organization because its board had no representative from the Manitoulin-North Shore area.

When he saw an advertisement last year asking citizens to apply to become the area’s board director on the NE LHIN board, Turner decided to take the opportunity. “Like most people in our small communities, I want to maintain the levels of care that we have,” he said. “You have to be involved to sustain the levels of care we have. We have to bring the local perspective to the LHIN.”

Peter Veaudry, chair of the NE LHIN, said it’s extremely important to have board members who come from different areas, and who have varied work experience.

“It’s huge to have people from those planning areas who can bring you intelligence to the board on the concerns from (their areas) for the board to consider,” he said. “If you don’t live there, you don’t understand. You really don’t.”