Northwestern Ontario wellness units vote to reject proposed merger

The boards of well being of the Thunder Bay district and Northwestern health and fitness units have announced that they will not move forward with negotiations to voluntarily merge the two corporations.

The Thunder Bay District Board of Overall health unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday rejecting a merger.

The Northwestern Health Unit’s board did the very same on Monday.

One of the greatest reasons for rejecting a merger was geography, reported Don Smith, the chair of the Thunder Bay wellbeing device.

“The authorities tends to not realize the geography in northwestern Ontario,” Smith explained to CBC.

‘Your service excellent is heading to be compromised’

“If merger was pushed ahead, you would have an location from Manitouwadge basically to the Manitoba border. It can be not sustainable. … Your provider high quality is heading to be compromised.”

A merger would consequence in a single entity serving all over 35 municipalities moreover To start with Nations, he included.

“How significant is your board going to be?” he questioned.

The merger conversations were induced final yr by the Ontario Ministry of Health’s Strengthening Community Health and fitness Technique, which calls for encouraging voluntary mergers as just one of its three pillars.

The two northwestern Ontario wellbeing models subsequently struck a merger committee and employed a marketing consultant to ascertain the feasibility of becoming a member of the corporations, Smith stated.

“The report mainly instructed that we would be wiser to stay independent,” he claimed.

In addition to considerations about geography and support standards, there have been also financial implications involved in merging, Smith explained.

The levies paid by municipalities to assist the overall health models differ significantly amongst the two organizations, and Thunder Bay would see its levy rise by close to 30 for each cent below a merger circumstance. 

What’s additional, the organizations really don’t offer you the exact programming in the exact same techniques, explained Dr. Kit Youthful Hoon, the medical officer of overall health for the Northwestern Well being Device.

Time zones, recruiting could be a problem

“A merged entity would nonetheless require to have various programming to meet up with the needs of communities,” she claimed in a news launch issued Wednesday.

The Northwestern Overall health Unit feared that merging could make it more difficult to recruit assistance providers into smaller communities, claimed Main Executive Officer Marilyn Herbacz.

“If you had a choice to operate in Thunder Bay, where you have accessibility to extra aid products and services, purchasing, wellness-form factors, you may possibly choose to go there instead than work in Emo, Rainy River — all those form of centres, she said.

Even working across two distinct time zones would pose a obstacle, she additional.

Some potential advantages to merger

The wellbeing units did identify some doable benefits to a merger, such as the potential for additional methods for software shipping and the prospective to standardize devices among the two bodies, Herbacz mentioned.

There had been also probable personal savings associated in possessing a solitary CAO and a solitary healthcare officer of well being, Smith defined.

Having said that, he stated, any benefits were overshadowed by the likely down-sides.

Even merging IT and human means departments would need a highly-priced method of adopting uniform devices, Herbacz added.

The overall health models already companion with each individual other and share methods in which it makes feeling, she reported, notably on case and speak to management of the variety that transpired in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Smith stated he hopes this week’s votes set an finish to any discuss of merging the two wellbeing units, but he’s not sure they will.

“Minister Jones, when I met with her at [the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference], assured me that this was not heading to be a forced merger,” he mentioned.

“And nonetheless some of her bureaucrats tended to make us come to feel like, you know, it might be so. There is a mixed information we are receiving from the govt on that as effectively.”