Opaque

Bill Roberts is councillor-elect for Sophiasburgh and a former QHC Advisory Council member.

Councillor-elect Bill Roberts urges more transparency and accountability from QHC

Do the residents of Prince Edward County understand the forces shaping healthcare and its funding in 2014? Do folks understand that we are an aging population with complex medical needs? Are we aware that a greater reliance on technology is driving higher costs in the system? Do we know that specialized skills are also shaping the roles of our hospitals and healthcare system?

QHC officials are increasingly despairing of the County’s ability to grasp these issues—particularly as QHC continues to cut resources, capacity and services at Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital while simultaneously mouthing commitment to a new hospital in Picton.

Asked last week when QHC was planning on telling this community that it was projecting $12 million deficit, chief administrator Mary Clare Egberts responded by saying she preferred to keep the information inhouse because the public wouldn’t understand.

Is Egberts correct in her low assessment of County resident’s ability to understand the forces shaping healthcare?

Bill Roberts doesn’t think so. The newly elected councillor for Sophiasburgh knocked on every door in the ward. He was, until recently a member of QHC’s Advisory Council. He is also a member of the County Health Care advisory committee.

“I think the County is really aware of what is at stake in healthcare in this community and the ways it is changing,” said Roberts. “It is very much a live issue and part of the community discussion. People understand that community healthcare isn’t just about flu shots. It is about having a viable health campus with a hospital at the centre—because it means taking care of young families, it means jobs, it means attractiveness to retirees, it means making the County attractive to investors who create jobs. It is a crucial part of the attractiveness of the way of life in Prince Edward County.”

Roberts says there is too much mystery about how QHC operates. Even as a member of the hospital corporation’s Advisory Council, he says he was kept in the dark.

Earlier this fall, it became clear to QHC officials that it was digging another financial hole. But at $7 million, it was deemed to be digestible, or so it was explained to Roberts and the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation.

“There were mumblings of savings from IT, a change of suppliers for linens and catering,” said Roberts. “But nothing that added up to a total of $7 million.”

Roberts says the Advisory Council was created to appease the community when the corporation membership was disbanded in 2009. Prior to that, community leaders were elected to the board. There was a measure of responsiveness to the communities served.

Roberts says the current advisory council isn’t able serve this role.

“It is not that effective,” said Roberts. “You are only as good or as informed as management wants you to be informed.”

There is no mechanism available to the Advisory Council to compel QHC officials to provide the information it needs.

Roberts intends to appeal to QHC board chair Steve Blakely, a resident of the County.

“I think it would be healthy for that chair to engage with the mayorelect, the chair of the foundation and interested citizens in an exercise of transparency on how these decisions are made. That would be a place to begin,” said Roberts.