Changes alarm health centres

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Christine Morin / Winnipeg Free Press Officials at St. Boniface Hospital are among those who fear the impending law will harm their facilities. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Officials at faith-based hospitals and personal care homes are worried a new provincial law will rob them of their autonomy and the money they raise from such services as volunteer-run gift shops.

The private corporations that operate St. Boniface Hospital, Misericordia Health Centre and dozens of personal care homes and clinics say the Selinger government is poised to contravene long-standing power-sharing and purchasing agreements with them.

They fear provincial and regional health bureaucrats will determine whom they hire as CEOs of their institutions and restrict decision-making over discretionary funds used to enhance services or pay for pastoral care.

Health Minister Theresa Oswald was not available for comment on Tuesday, but a spokeswoman for the minister reiterated the government's promise to consult with the groups before proclaiming into law sections of the act affecting them.

She said the consultations will include establishing a "collaborative process" for hiring CEOs and ensuring CEO compensation is "fair, responsible and consistent."

She said the consultations would also ensure "appropriate accountability for the use of surplus public funding for these health facilities."

The introduction of Bill 6, the Regional Health Authorities Amendment Act, this spring caused little stir initially. The NDP government heralded it as a bill that would streamline health-care bureaucracy by reducing the number of regional health authorities in Manitoba to five from 11.

But other amendments pertaining to the accountability of health-care corporations raised red flags with faith-based hospitals and personal care homes. Representatives of these institutions said they were not consulted in advance, and now they want the government to backtrack.

"Our ultimate objective is to repeal that legislation," said Wilmar Chopyk, executive director of the Catholic Health Association of Manitoba.

The NDP government has proclaimed only a portion of the act -- the portion dealing with regional health authority amalgamation. It has yet to bring into force the sections that are raising the ire of the health-care corporations -- pending promised future consultations.

Hospitals and personal care homes operated by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, such as the Health Sciences Centre, would not be affected.

Chopyk said faith-based health-care corporations have no issue with the government reducing the number of health authorities in Manitoba. "It makes good sense. We're all for that."

The same goes for the government's stated goal of increasing transparency and accountability over spending, he said.

But the groups fear the government is about to interfere in areas it has no right to be in -- in contravention of decades-old agreements.

Gerald Pronyk, chairman of MARCHE, a group that represents about 30 mainly faith-based personal care homes, said the hiring of a CEO should be left to the board of the facility, not government or regional health authority bureaucrats.

He used Autopac to illustrate his point. Manitoba Public Insurance may pay to have a car repaired, but it doesn't dictate who should head the company that winds up doing the work.

"At no time does MPI or the government ever say, 'We're going to control who you're going to hire as the chief executive officer of this autobody shop,' " Pronyk said Tuesday.

Religion-based boards fear the province, under still-to-be-written guidelines limiting CEO pay in the health sector, may prevent the board of a Catholic-controlled institution, for example, from hiring the candidate it wants.

Bill 6 would also allow cabinet to regulate the use or transfer of a health corporation's surplus funds or money raised through ancillary services. That has institutions worried health bureaucrats may dictate how money raised from services such as hair salons and gift shops is spent.

Currently, such surplus funds generally go to pastoral care or service improvements.

Pronyk said one personal care home, for instance, is raising funds to purchase a special mechanical walker for patients who have been bedridden or in a wheelchair for long periods of time.

Would government bureaucrats approve? "I'm afraid they may veto what we choose to spend it on," he said.

In a recent submission to MLAs, the Interfaith Health Care Association of Manitoba said the legislation is "an affront to the legitimate and value-laden role and specific and significant contribution of the nine faith-based groups that own and operate health- and social-service organizations in the province."

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

For whom the bell tolls

Affected groups include faith-based organizations that own and operate dozens of hospitals, clinics and personal care homes. They include:

St. Boniface Hospital

Misericordia Health Centre

Youville Centre

St. Amant Centre

Holy Family Nursing Home

Ste. Rose General Hospital

Bethania Mennonite personal care home

Meadowood Manor

The Sharon Home

Luther Home

Calvary Place

Park Manor Personal Care Home

West Park Manor Personal Care Home

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 18, 2012 A3