New Northern Health portfolio head will be a familiar face

Nov 29, 2017 | 1:00 PM

The new Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) just announced who’ll be responsible for Prince Albert and the north.

Andrew McLetchie, current CEO of the Mamawetan Churchill Health Region based in La Ronge, will soon be based in P.A.

As that health region and the 11 others in Saskatchewan formally amalgamate into one new single provincial authority next week, McLetchie has been named vice president of the portfolio to be known as Integrated Northern Health. There will be two other portfolios looking after urban and rural areas across the province, but the North is seen as a key and equal part of the picture, and the senior leadership is eager to stress that.

McLetchie was not immediately available for comment, but the SHA’s CEO Scott Livingstone told paNOW the new appointee has been a CEO since 2011 and has a background in nursing and health administration in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario, and Ireland.

Livingstone said it was “absolutely critical” to appoint someone who understands the North. 

“When we developed the urban, rural and northern portfolios… we were very cognizant of the importance of having people with local knowledge and understanding of the needs of those communities,” Livingstone said. “That’s probably more important in many ways for Northern Saskatchewan given the significant challenges residents face in respect to health disparities and access to health care.”

McLetchie will be based in Prince Albert and run the Integrated Northern Health portfolio alongside a Physician Executive who has yet to be announced.

Local and regional critics of the province’s move to a single health authority have voiced concerns that care would be comprised in the North as more efficiencies are found across the health system, but Livingstone does not see it that way.

“There’s no question the [provincial] reorganization is about reducing the amount of administrators in the system,” he said. “But speaking to Northern Saskatchewan, [having] specific executive leadership designated to the North that is on an equal footing with both the urban and rural portfolios, speaks to the commitment that the region is represented as well as any other area in the province.”

And Livingstone expects the new single health care model will make things better for the provision of health care in the North.

“Having provincial resources to draw on in times of high demand or for specialist focus needs… will ensure we can level the playing field for everybody in the province, not just those folks who are lucky enough to live in the bigger centres,” he said.

As the new SHA board gets set to hold its inaugural meeting Monday there has been uncertainty regarding potential job losses within the P.A. Parklands administration, but Livingstone said “there would not be any job losses.”

He added one of the focuses of the transition was “ensuring local folks stay in the system so there’s a familiar face and the same folks we’ve built a trust and respectful relationship with.”

 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow