LHIN chair: We want help with, not to kill, NEO Kids idea

There has been much excitement over Health Sciences North’s (HSN) plans to build what they are describing as a Pediatric Centre of Excellence for the North East, also known as NEO Kids.

As a mom of three teenagers, I can easily understand the excitement. I’m also the chair of the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) and I can tell you that as board and system planners for health care in the northeast region, we are committed to ensuring Northerners — of all ages — can access quality care as close to home as possible.

We think it’s a great idea to improve and integrate the care children receive across the vast region of northeastern Ontario and we applaud Dr. Sean Murray’s passion for this project.

However, after receiving HSN’s proposal and listening to their presentation at our June board meeting, we ended up with more questions than answers. That’s why we, as Board, sent HSN back to find the facts and figures that would strengthen their business case, and as my fellow Board member Dr. Colin Germond put it, make it “iron-clad and water-tight.”

For example, some of our questions include:
- The proposal suggests that over 40 per cent of the new centre’s space would be for physician offices and a lobby – would physicians pay rent as part of their agreement?
- How many children are receiving outpatient services outside of the region, what types of services are they receiving, and will the new centre provide these services?
- The proposed centre suggests a mental health clinic, why would this be in a hospital setting and not in a community setting (much like the successful Cedar Street clinic).
- Most of the services that would be available in the new centre are already available in the community, but in different locations. What will happen to the space that becomes available in the community?
- If the centre is built, how much space would it free up at HSN’s Ramsey Lake site, Kirkwood site and Cedar Street location? What would the space then be used for?

As a LHIN Board, we want this proposal to succeed. Once we give it a stamp of approval, it will go to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s Capital Branch where it will need to compete with all the other equally wonderful projects from across the province that are also looking for capital dollars in these fiscally tight times.

I’d also like to clear up one misconception that I’ve heard from friends and neighbours. NEO Kids is not like a northern version of (Toronto) Sick Kids. We’re not talking about beds, but rather out-patient services. So the children who are currently admitted to a hospital in Toronto or Ottawa, will still have to go there, even if and after the proposed $55-million centre is built.

We’re looking forward to receiving this revised proposal at our fall board meeting. In the meantime, we have committed to provide HSN with any help they need to gather the facts and improve their business case.

Danielle Belanger-Corbin
Chair of the North East LHIN Board of Directors