All Manitoba regional health authority (RHA) boards have approved the government’s proposal to reduce the number of authorities to five from 11, enabling the province to take the next steps in the merger process. This announcement was made by Health Minister Theresa Oswald.
“Merging RHAs will help protect what matters most to Manitoba families: high quality health care and ensuring maximum resources are going to support front-line services,” said Oswald. “Merging RHAs is part of our strategy to protect front-line health care today and ensure we have a sustainable universal health-care system for years to come, focused on providing families with the care they need when and where they need it.”
The boards are forwarding their approvals to Manitoba Health to support amendments required to regulations under the Regional Health Authorities Act to merge the existing 11 RHAs into the five new regions, which should be in place by the end of May, Oswald noted. Once the new regions are in place, an interim board will be temporarily established in each region to begin the work of the region including appointing the new chief executive officer. Permanent boards, composed of members of the existing RHA boards, will be appointed soon after, ensuring the requisite skills, experience, diversity and geographic representation are in place to govern the new regions as they move forward, the minister said.
“We want to ensure the new RHAs are more responsive to the patients, families and local communities they serve,” said Oswald. “Amendments to the Regional Health Authorities Act introduced in the legislature last week would create Local Health Involvement Groups. Later this year, we will conduct consultations with the public and local communities about how these groups can best support improved engagement between the public and RHAs.”
Until the new regions are formally created and new CEOs and boards are in place, the current 11 RHAs continue to operate, providing quality health care for all Manitobans, the minister said.
