LHINs to 'democratize' health care governance: LHIN chairman
Monday, May 1, 2006 -- John Driscoll
Port Perry has set the standard for the Central East (CE) Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Foster Loucks, chairman of the board of the told about 100 people attending the first community consultation session Monday (Apr. 24) at the Scugog Recreation Centre.

There are nine consultation sessions scheduled throughout the the Central East LHIN, which stretches from Scarborough east through Durham Region and Northumberland County and north through Peterborough County, City of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County.

“If people have doubts about this democratizing process for health governance, it strikes me that they should come to a session like the one tonight,” Loucks said after the meeting.
“Participation at the community level represents a change that has to occur in how decisions are made.”

The health care system doesn’t belong to the LHIN board or the province, Loucks said. “It belongs to the people and this process has to be driven from the bottom up.”

While there isn’t enough money to do everything we would like to, there is a way to make better use of our resources, he said.

The transformation of the health care system began with the creation of 14 LHINs across the province, giving them the power to plan, integrate, co-ordinate, fund and measure the performance of a local health care system.

According to a recent survey, only 16 per cent of the Ontario population had any idea of what the LHIN is about, Loucks told the audience. “We are accessible, we want
to hear from you and we need your assistance.”

Other CE LHIN representatives at the meeting included CEO Marilyn Emery, Nizar Ladak, senior director of performance, contract and allocation and James Meloche, senior director of planning, integration and community engagement.

The daylong meeting included workshop sessions with local health care providers to discuss local priorities, challenges and opportunities as well as an evening meeting with residents to share information gained during the workshops and answer questions.

“I was very pleased with the first session,” Loucks said. “People were interested in the issues and understood the issues.

“We were there to educate and to be educated,” Meloche said. “The sessions are a way of reaching the public to tell them more about what we are planning and to learn from them about their local priorities and challenges.”