Vitalit CEO wants premier to stop extramural reform

The CEO of the Vitalit Health Network says the organization will continue to lobby against the outsourcing of the province's extramural program and will now appeal directly to Premier Brian Gallant to stop the reform.

Gilles Lanteigne said in the wake ofrecent comments by Health Minister Benoit Bourque, Vitalit's board is sending a letter to the premier asking him to consider an alternative proposal.

"We are very optimistic and very convinced that we have a better model," Lanteigne said. "We'd just like to be heard."

The province announced in August that it would privatize management of the extramural program by handing it to Medavie Blue Cross to run.

• Medavie CEO defends takeover of extramural management

Vitalit, one of two regional health authorities in New Brunswick, came out against the proposal. The board argues it has a better way to integrate home care with the rest of the health system.

"We don't feel that the arguments that we've made have resonated with Minister Bourque," Lanteigne said. "It's really taking away components that are essential to our mandate."

He was responding to an interview Bourque gave to the French-language newspaper L'Acadie Nouvelle about the health authority's opposition to the plan.

Last word

Bourque told the newspaper that while health authorities have control over operations, "when it comes to principles and budgets, it's the minister of health who has the last word."

He also said pointedly that "the president and CEO of a health authority is hired and I would add fired by the health minister. He serves at the pleasure of the minister."

Those aren't idle comments. The Gallant government fired the last CEO of Vitalit, Rino Volp. A court later ruled he was fired without cause and ordered the province to pay him $525,000.

Bourque told CBC News that his comments to the newspaper were in response to a question about the respective roles of the health minister and a health authority CEO.

He said it was not a threat to fire Lanteigne if he continued to criticize the Medavie contract.

"Absolutely not," Bourque said. "It is factual. What I said is factual."

Bourque downplayed Vitalit's criticism of the extramural outsourcing. He said such disagreements happen occasionally.

"This is not the first time that it's happened and it won't be the last, but I want to underline that there's a lot more agreement than disagreement," he said.

Lanteigne said he wasn't expecting Bourque's comments about his power to fire a health authority CEO.

"Obviously I was surprised to hear that."

Better plan

But he said the more important issue was patient care, and he said Vitalit "can do it significantly better" than Medavie.

The province is arguing that putting extramural under Medavie will allow for better integration with the ambulance services that the company already runs.

• 'Major concerns' about privatized management of extramural, Tele-Care

Lanteigne says extramural is "an essential piece of our continuum of care" and it's better for the authorities who run hospitals to also handle home care.

"If you look elsewhere in Canada at provinces that have succeeded, you need to control the elements that will permit the seamless flow of clients through the system without creating silos," he said.

What the Liberals want to achieve with Medavie "can be addressed very easily through a simple change to how people are working. We don't need to go through a big structure."

He said he and the board feel Bourque hasn't really looked at their proposal, and that's why he and the board chair are hoping to meet Gallant to present it to him directly.

The role of a health authority "is to assess the needs of the community and provide services in relation to these needs," Lanteigne said. "We're just exercising this role.

"We want to be collaborative. We want to be participants. We're not just opposing this. We're trying to convince based on facts and best practices."