The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Key questions about the Northern Health Region will be settled by its new board and executive staff, not politicians, according to the Manitoba government. By the end of this month, the province expects the NOR-MAN and Burntwood regional health authorities to be amalgamated into the new NHR. A government spokesperson said a decision on where to headquarter the NHR, and which factors to consider in doing so, will be made in the region. 'These are the kinds of operational decisions the board and (executive) team of the new northern RHA will make,' said the spokesperson. 'The province does anticipate that there will likely be an RHA administrative presence in the communities that currently have this (Flin Flon and Thompson), but these decisions have not been made yet.' Yet leaving such decisions to board members and staff may risk conflict as individuals from different areas of the region potentially lobby in favour of their home communities. Already Mayor George Fontaine has said the city will push to ensure Flin Flon, home of NOR-MAN, will not lose any health-care positions. The City of Thompson, where Burntwood is based, may well do the same. But discord does not appear to be a concern for the government. 'The province has committed to ensuring the board represents the diversity and geography of the region as well as the skills and experience to make these types of decisions,' said the spokesperson. See 'Job...' on pg. 11 Continued from pg. 1 Then there is the question of job cuts. The NDP government has vowed to lay off up to 35 regional health authority bureaucrats as part of amalgamations across the province. The question of who stays and who goes in the NHR is still open. An interim board is set to be appointed this month to launch the NHR, which will include hiring a CEO in consultation with Manitoba Health. Decisions about other executive staff will follow shortly thereafter, the spokesperson said. NOR-MAN CEO Helga Bryant assumed her position permanently this past January. Gloria King is the CEO of Burntwood. Consultations Public consultations are expected this fall in the parts of Manitoba impacted by the health authority mergers. These gatherings 'will focus on improving local community involvement to ensure residents have a stronger voice,' the spokesperson said. In terms of cost savings, the province expects to save $10 million over the next three years through health authority mergers across Manitoba. But a specific estimate for the NOR-MAN-Burntwood merger is not yet available. 'This will be closely tracked to ensure the focus remains on redirecting administrative savings to support front-line care,' said the spokesperson. The NOR-MAN-Burntwood amalgamation is one of five RHA mergers being imposed across Manitoba. The NHR will cover about 61 per cent of Manitoba's land mass and service some 73,000 people. Excluding hamlets, cottage settlements and Saskatchewan towns near the Manitoba border, it will provide care to 44 communities. The NHR will encompass all of northern Manitoba except Churchill, whose tiny RHA is being merged with the Winnipeg RHA, as the two bodies are already closely connected. The mergers will leave Manitoba with five health regions compared to 11 at present. As per government policy, The Reminder was instructed not to name the spokesperson interviewed for this article.
