So You Wanna Try To Turn The NHS Into A Hospital Board For All The People? Here Is Your Chance

By Doug Draper

 The Niagara Health System – the decade-old almalamated body responsible for most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario – is reaching out for applicants to fill a new hospital board.

Debbie Sevenpifer, the former CEO and board chair of the NHS, and some of the other screwballs on the former NHS board that turned this hospital system into such a mess, at one of the board’s annual meetings just a couple of years ago, File photo by Doug Draper

 It may not be the way some want to do it. There are no elections being held here for hospital board members. If you are interested, concerned or outraged over where we have and are going with hospital services in this Niagara region, you have got to apply if you feel that being a member of a new NHS board will make any difference.

 Let’s just hope that enough good people from the working class and what Mitt Romney, the failed U.S. Republican Party candidate for the presidency, might call the 47 per cent of us that are bums because we pay little or no income taxes, get a fair shot at these board positions. Let us hope that we don’t end up getting the same usual suspects from the narrow band of elites in this region. We had that the last time on this board, and it was a disaster.

 So here are the particulars from the NHS for applying for a board position, submitted in a release from this hospital administration. If you think you fit any of the qualifications listed below, you might want to give this board a shot, although you probably know it won’t be easy. The last board pretty well did the public credibility of the NHS in.

NEWS RELEASE,  Friday, November 9, 2012

NHS now accepting applications for the Board of Directors

 Last evening, Dr. Kevin Smith, Niagara Health System Supervisor, called the first meeting of the Community-Based Nominating Committee that will help him select the new Board for the hospital system.

 The membership of the committee accepted their mandate, and will now begin advertising for candidates to join the new NHS Board of Directors. 

Interested parties are asked to visit the Niagara Health System website (www.niagarahealth.on.ca) to download and complete an application. Applications will be due on December 3, 2012. 

The desirable personal characteristics for Directors as identified by the Committee are:

• Commitment to governing a high-quality healthcare organization, acting in the best interests of our patients and the communities we serve 
• An understanding of and commitment to the NHS Vision, Mission and Values
• Commitment to governing an environment that promotes a high-quality worklife
• Honesty and integrity
• An ability to work as part of a team
• An ability to communicate effectively
• A willingness to devote the time and effort required to be an effective Board member
• Visionary thinker

Applicants will also be evaluated against a skills matrix adapted from the Ontario Hospital Association Guide to Good Governance.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below. PLEASE NOTE that NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last names …. No phony names are accepted here.)