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 The Northern Regional Health Authority is working to trim executive positions. As part of the amalgamation of the NOR-MAN and Burntwood RHAs, some senior-level jobs will be cut to save money and avoid duplication. While it's not yet clear who is staying and who is going, those decisions are to be finalized in the next few weeks. 'The workforce adjustment process for the senior leadership positions will be concluded by the end of September _ further details will be known at that time,' the province said in a statement to The Reminder. Merger The NOR-MAN-Burntwood merger was one of five RHA amalgamations ordered by the province in April. It reduced the number of RHAs in Manitoba from 11 to five. The NDP government expects the mergers will slash up to 35 executive positions across the province _ an average of seven jobs per RHA. The new RHA boards are tasked with finding ways to streamline administration, focus on provincial priorities and strengthen community involvement in health care. See 'RHA...' pg.7 Continued from pg.1 Helga Bryant, former CEO of NOR-MAN, has already been named CEO of the Northern RHA. Doug Lauvstad of The Pas, who had been the NOR-MAN board chair, is also chair of the Northern RHA. The Northern RHA is following what it calls a 'distributed leadership model' in which executive staff have a presence in each of the region's three largest communities: Flin Flon, The Pas and Thompson. The RHA is also using the term 'regional office' to describe where regional corporate functions occur _ again in the three largest centres. The RHA covers about 61 per cent of Manitoba's land mass and provides health care for some 73,000 people _ or about six per cent of the provincial population. Excluding hamlets, cottage settlements and Saskatchewan towns near the Manitoba border, the new RHA will provide health care services to 46 communities. The imaginary line between The Pas in the western half of Manitoba and St. Theresa Point in the eastern half serves as the southernmost border of the Northern RHA. The RHA covers everything north of that line, right up to the Nunavut border, with the exception of Churchill, which is now part of the Winnipeg RHA.
