(June 12 2023)<\/p>\n
By: Norman De Bono, The London Free Press<\/p>\n
London Health Sciences Centre leaders are tearing apart a cohesive health-care system that works, adding bureaucracy and cost as service integration is unraveled, a local advocate warned at a weekend public forum held by the hospital.<\/p>\n
LHSC is scrapping a long-standing collaboration agreement with the city\u2019s other hospital, St. Joseph\u2019s Health Care,\u00a0as first reported by The Free Press. Officials with the large hospital held a Saturday morning community forum at Goodwill on Horton Street and the first question was: Why scrap a partnership that works?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be struggling, competing against one another for staff in an environment where there\u2019s a staffing crisis,\u201d Peter Bergmanis, chair of the London Health Coalition, an advocacy group, said after the meeting. \u201cHow will we make this run smoothly? It doesn\u2019t add up to quality patient care. It will be fragmented.\u201d<\/p>\n
LHSC and St. Joe\u2019s in a 2016 agreement set broad ground rules for joint ventures and shared services, though co-operation preceded that formal partnership. That deal has been undone, meaning collaboration will end on everything from electronic patient records to shared lab services and joint buying of medical supplies, doctor credentials and technology services.<\/p>\n
Bergmanis questioned LHSC chief executive Jackie Schleifer Taylor on the issue and the hospital boss answered that LHSC still will partner and share resources with St. Joe\u2019s, but health care has changed.<\/p>\n
The partnership agreement had a \u201cfive-year cycle,\u201d she said, and \u201ca lot has changed at both our hospitals. We have programs that only happen at St. Joseph\u2019s and others that only happen at LHSC. We both have regional mandates that are different. . . . LHSC looked at them carefully and considered what was next.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Bergmanis said Schleifer Taylor didn\u2019t answer his key questions: Why do this? And how will patient care be affected?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy with it,\u201d he said of her response. \u201cShe glossed over the contradictions, saying we\u2019re still working together, but separating. She didn\u2019t justify it. It\u2019s not efficient. It\u2019s fragmented.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Free Press shone a spotlight on the issue after Tony Dagnone, a former longtime LHSC chief executive, sent a scathing letter to the hospital\u2019s board of directors slamming the \u201cbackroom antics\u201d of terminating the pact with St. Joe\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cLondon hospitals are precious community resources. Governance should be promoting effective inter-hospital collaboration at every opportunity to garner value for money,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMy view is that the board should prohibit management from creating self-defined organizational castles at expense of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, the two hospitals have evolved to complement, rather than compete with, each other, he added.<\/p>\n
Each hospital will have its own medical research division, and Schleifer Taylor said the hospitals no longer will share vice-presidents, which the agreement had covered in areas such as medical and academic affairs, internal auditing and information management.<\/p>\n
Before the community forum, Schleifer Taylor discussed how the Ontario government has moved to scrap larger regional health-care administrations in favour of smaller, collaborative teams of hospitals and other partners, including in long-term and primary care.<\/p>\n
The health system changes, together with gaps exposed by the pandemic, mean LHSC needs to work with a cross-section of other health-care providers, not just other hospitals, Schleifer Taylor said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a new focus now on partnering with similar acute-care hospitals and building closer ties with home care, long-term care and social service agencies, she added.<\/p>\n