IN the spirit of hope
springing eternal, a pair
of items bearing cause
for optimism:

The first involves health
itself, and specifically our
local hospital’s, which has
been sorely ailing of late.

At the outset of 1998,
Lions Gate’s pulse was faint.
Energy sapped by political
and managerial in-fighting.
Leadership, direction, vision
were in short supply; staff
malaise and patient discord
were abundant.

Drastic surgery was called
for.

Tt came in two operations.
The first eliminated the well-
intentioned but under-
equipped 13-member region-
al health board; the second
eliminated the “autocratic
and divisive” North Shore
| Health Region CEO, Inge
. Schamborzki.

* Much blood-letting; much

release Of tension.

~ But whither the hospital

now? ae

* Back into the arms of the
community, where it belongs.

We hope.

The man in charge of
helping put Lions Gate and
the North Shore Health
“Region back.on the road to
‘recovery is Len Kelsey,
‘BCAA’s vice-president of

product development.

“Then-health minister Joy

MacPhail appointéd him

head of the North
re‘Health Region when
the.board ‘was sacked:
«He brings with him seven
rs of Lions Gate Hospital
board experience: Add to that

a crisp business approach and

a Tefreshing sense of-urgency.

Lions Gate i is his hospital

too.
Kelsey has been’a resident
of West Vancouver's

Fisherman's Cove area for the

past 30 years.

He takes these things per-
sonally. As should we ali.

Step one then tor Mr.
Kelsey on the road to good
hospital and region health is
putting together a competent
health board.

Its predecessor, while
well-intentioned, was not
built with the right raw mate-
rials. Consistent with the
NDP approach to all-inclu-
siveness, it started out tou

. large (over 20 members) and

ended up at unlucky 13.
Diversity perhaps; compe-
_ tence, perhaps nor.

as George Morfitt’s
recent report into the NDP’s
ill-executed reorganization of
the province’s health care eys-
tem pointed our, the makeup
-of B.C.’s regional health
boards, which are now
accountable for over half the
health ministry's $7 billion
budger, misses the mark by a
wide margin.

The responsibilities of the
boards are significant, but
information about their cre-
dentials and qualifications is
lacking. Morfitt’s report
found no documentation to
identify individual competen-
ces. Most potential canai-

dates were nor interviewed to
ascertain their qualifications
to govern. .

And the process of seleet-
ing those who sit on the
boards failed to identity the

necessary skills and abilities of

those appointed.

Kelsey agrees with
Morfitt’s findings and knows
he cannot afford to make the
same mistakes.

His three-member North
Shore board selection com-
mittee, which includes former
Lions Gate Hospital board
member Grant Spitz and cur-
rent acting North Shore
Health Region CEO Bert
Boyd, is seeking candidates
based on the common sense
principle chat relevant finan-
cial, legal, health care skill-
sets, experience and commu-
nity commitment are of para-
mount importance.

An ability to think and
work strategically and experi-
ence working with a board
charged with similar scope is
also needed.

Those armed with special
interest agendas or political
axes to grind need not apply.

At stake is a $200 million
budget and a complex menu
of issues that go beyond the
doors of Lions Gate.

It is not a job for the faint
of heart but it is a job that
needs the best of the North
Shore.

And that best is sone of
the best the province has to

offer. North Shore residents

care passionately abour their
health and the health of their
community.

It is part of the North
Shore culture. Response to
the search for the new North
Shore health region CEO has
been tremendous thus far,

Parents! Grandpar.

Kelsey reports.

Response to fill what
Kelsey estimates will be a
core of cight or nine volun-
teer board positions has thus
far been less inspiring.

Can’t blame too many for
thar. The last board received
scant help from the political
games-plavers in Victoria
when the grenades were
being tossed between the
doctors and the region’s
CEO.

And the North Shore
public is a demanding bunch.
But challenges are what
makes life interesting.

Those qualified need to
apply sooner rather than later.
Kelsey hopes to get the board
in place by mid-May. Call the
North Shore health offices
(210-171 West Esplanade) at
984-3841],

Help return good health
to the North Shore’s com-
munity hospital and the rest
of the region’s health facili-
ties.

They won't heal on their

eETSLILeTS BA

own,

The second ray of spring-
time hope, meanwhile, was
generated late last month by
the country’s judiciary. It
sends a welcome shaft of light
into the muddled murk of
human rights.

In a recent Federal Court
ruling, Madame Justice
Donna McGillis cast doubt
on the integrity of Canada’s
quasi-judicial human tights
tribunals.

The judge said that con-
nections between tribunals
and the Canadian Human
Rights Commission are too
close to allow them to con-
duct fair and impartial hear-
ings.

The same applies, of
course, to B.C.’s misguided
human rights circus, where
the connection between
human rights tribunals and
the government’s human
rights commission is obvivus
and subverts any pictense to
impartiality.

In the case of the govern-

ment's Bill 33 amendments
to what was the Human
Rights Act and is now the
Human Rights Code, pov-
ernment-appointed tribunals
are charged with carrying out
the government's ann-dema-
sratic legislation to prosecute
speech that is not criminal.

And in the case of the
North Shore News, it has
been used to force a newspa-
per, for the first time in B.C.
history, to defend an opinion
column against charges thar it
violated standards of content
legislated in vague govern-
ment statute.

As Justice McGillis’ judg-
ment indicates, the formal
ties of human rights uribunals
to human rights conmissions
undermine the perceived
independence needed for a
fair hearing.

Amen to that Madame
Justice.

Light in the darkness.

Spring fever is upon us.
Let the bright light of
enlightenment reign.

Aha RO ARES ATTEN NERTOTYS ROR ON YD ARE, RAR EPL AECL LAA ERICA

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We understand the site will .
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