Huronia District Hospital Supervisor’s Proposal
Official News Release

Background
• Dr. Kevin Smith was appointed Supervisor of Huronia District Hospital (HDH) after the Board resigned in October 2007.
• His mandate as Supervisor is to resolve the governance issues at HDH.
• Since being appointed Dr. Smith has conducted extensive consultations in the community and region, and opened a confidential email address to hear comments and concerns.

Findings
• Dr. Smith heard of the great confidence and pride the citizens of the communities have about their hospitals, and of the great achievements of the North Simcoe Hospital Alliance (NSHA).
• The community unanimously requested a solution that includes the following three points:
1) A secular hospital, and no loss of services in the community.
2) A way to continue the Catholic healthcare mission and the legacy of its founders the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
3) A permanent alternative to the Alliance to ensure hospital mergers do not have to be revisited.

Proposal
• With these three points in mind Dr. Smith is submitting the following proposal for the community’s consideration, a proposal which includes health system partners other than HDH:
a) To join the current HDH and Penetanguishene General Hospital (PGH) into a single entity that would be governed by a single, secular board of directors from the community and managed by a single Chief Executive Officer, continuing the sites and services currently offered.
b) To use a Community Based Nominating Group to select Board members for the secular hospital based upon skill and ability. It is expected that the membership of the Board will also reflect geographic and socio-linguistic communities.
c) To divest the Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene (MHCP) regional programs to the Catholic Board of the current PGH, who would then govern the regional mental health facility, permitting the continued mission, vision and values of faith based health care.
d) To engage the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in the governance and management of provincial maximum secure programs, currently housed in the Oak Ridge building, and have CAMH be a significant partner in the future redevelopment of Oak Ridge working with PGH.
e) To ensure a strong relationship with respect to maximum secure forensic services and the local communities through a Community Advisory Committee to CAMH.

Benefits
• Strengthening local governance of healthcare
• Permanently continuing Catholic healthcare
presence
• Ensuring no services are lost, and that no sites
are closed
• Building on past success of the Alliance