Scale back local health oversight for now

In reference to Brian Desbiens’ column “The case for local health-care governance” on Jan. 11, I believe he should widen his scope on this issue. In my Letter to the

Editor on Dec. 21 I stated my reasons why public health unit mergers make sense.

Mr. Desbiens stated some of the positive aspects of community health care based on his local board experience. In my opinion the value-for-money, oversight, and transparency of all these local boards and health care providers are areas of concern that can’t be ignored. For example, try and find out the cost of legal services that are funneled away from patient care and programs.

We are in a precarious financial crisis in Ontario due to 14 years of Liberal mismanagement and costly scandals. We cannot afford the luxury of trust in local governance of our health care system, or any other aspect of provincial government management for that matter. We need consistency in operations and procedures throughout the province.

We need real-time collection and reporting of health services data. We need feedback loops which constantly serve to improve processes with regards to economy, efficiency and patient needs. This is why we need the “experts” managing health care, not the government of the day.

In my opinion, governments, and most public servants, have lost sight of the fact there is only one taxpayer funding the health care system. It is there to serve the all Ontarians. While community health care participation is important it needs to be scaled back and aligned with similar jurisdictions in Ontario. LHINs may not be the perfect solution but it is a start to focusing our health care dollars, and patient services, where they are most needed.

Once we gain control of our health care dollars and patient needs we can entertain Mr. Desbiens’ desire to have our community health-care leadership come together to ensure governance and advocacy structures are served at the local level.

Dave Schofield, Cindy St.