Reader has concerns about interim CEO of South Bruce Grey Health Centre

To the Editor:
RE: “Michael Barrett is interim CEO of South Bruce Grey Health Centre”

I just want to share a few thoughts about the new interim chief executive officer (CEO) for the South Bruce Grey Health Centre, Michael Barrett.

Under Barrett, health planning and co-ordination was no better off. The merger of the CCAC (Community Care Access Centre) to the South West LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) was a disaster - and remains a fragile organization that ballooned too quickly without taking the care necessary to figure out what people the organization needed to retain for a lean and effective operation.

The cost-savings that the LHIN was a cheerleader for: top administrative positions would be eliminated while front-line care would not suffer, and the merger would save about $1-billion to the system.

The LHIN was seven to eight people strong and now has grown to more than 40-50 people running the LHIN and CCAC. There remains poor co-ordination of home care, mental health, addictions program, chronic disease management, etc.

These are no secret. Either Mr. Barrett sat on his hands for the past 10 years as leader of the local LHIN and was a lip-service puppet for the government or he really just didn't 'get it' and lacked the motivation to leave a solid lasting impression on the region.

After considerable research, I am hard pressed to find some concrete examples of sustained change he has been responsible for leading. Mr. Barrett left the LHIN under a cloud of unanswered questions and has now been recruited as interim CEO for our hospital system.

I would like to understand what he is able to contribute to our region, considering he has done nothing to advance Patients First legislation or other provincial initiatives that I can understand from a simple Google search. I hope bringing this fellow to the hospital does not undermine the current state of progress that Paul Rosebush (former president and CEO) has been doing for the hospital.

I am at a loss at the inept hospital board, and can only imagine if its members read the same papers everyone else has to better appreciate the abilities Mr. Barrett brings to the table.

The hospital board has a hard job, but at the same time, it really appears there was no thought around staff engagement or advancement of provincial initiatives, to say the least. It just appears his recruitment has been done in secret - maybe the board is anticipating public push-back and wanted to wait until the ink on the contract was dry! Wonder what his hourly rate will be?

I wish Mr. Barrett all the best - he will need it in our area where we like to keep people accountable and ask hard questions that demand answers.

Janice McIntyre (nee Smith)
Lion's Head