The newly appointed board of directors of the Ontario Health super agency held its inaugural meeting on Monday with no advance notice or invitation to the public, raising questions about transparency.Meantime, more than 200 board members of 20 smaller agencies that are being swallowed up by Ontario Health were abruptly and quietly sacked last week, leaving some with hard feelings.Those agencies include 14 local health integration networks (LHINs) and Cancer Care Ontario, which always held open board meetings, and posted agendas and minutes online. “We were unceremoniously let go with no public thank you or acknowledgement,” said a former LHIN board member who asked to remain anonymous so he could speak freely. The board of the super agency should not be meeting “in secret, behind closed doors and with no public knowledge,” he said. “Given that it is a super agency, you want even more eyes on it.”The health ministry confirmed on Wednesday that Ontario Health held its first board meeting two days earlier at an undisclosed location in Toronto.Read more:Management-level health jobs will be axed, Premier Doug Ford saysOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Ontario’s new plan for health care echoes past prescriptionsMassive health-care overhaul called ‘biggest change’ since medicareIt was “largely an orientation meeting” and was not open to the public, said a statement from the ministry’s communications branch.“Ontario Health board meetings are not required to be open to the public but the board recognizes the need to engage Ontarians in continually improving their health-care system. The board will be required to establish mechanisms for public engagement to ensure openness and transparency,” read the statementHealth Minister Christine Elliott issued a news release Friday afternoon, announcing the board of Ontario Health, the umbrella agency that will run the province’s health system. The ...
|
