Northern Health board meets in Prince Rupert today

After an absence of three and half years, the Prince Rupert's number has once come up as the Northern Health board holds one of its six regular meetings here.

Of the six board meetings held yearly, three are moved to communities other than Prince George each year, due to the vast reach of the Northern Health territory, Prince Rupert hasn't been on the destination list for over three years.

Today's meeting will provide for a roundtable examination of issues, involving municipal leaders, health care advocates, regional district representatives and elected provincial officials.

Perhaps a showing of a bootleg copy of Michael Moore's Sicko might help the board members to focus on the job at hand...

Opininion 250 out of Prince George provided an agenda of sorts.


Prince Rupert Site Of NH Board Meeting
By 250 News
Thursday, July 12, 2007 05:09 AM

There will be a new component to Northern Health’s Board meeting in Prince Rupert today.
NH Director of Communications, Mark Karjaluoto, says directors decided at the board meeting in March to hold roundtable discussions when they gather outside of Prince George.

Of the six meetings each year, three are held in communities other than Prince George. But Karjaluoto says, due to the number of communities covered by the health region, it’s been three-and-a-half years since Board members met in Prince Rupert.

"What we’ve booked is a community roundtable - so we’ve invited municipal government leaders, some health advocate around here, a provincial elected official, the regional hospital district and others to sit down with us,” says the NH rep. “We’ll take them through a presentation of kind of what we’re doing and, basically, answer any questions they have, so we have a better opportunity to meet face-to-face and to address, hopefully, their concerns.”

Today’s board meeting will be the first for new Northern Health CEO, Cathy Ulrich, who took the post after Malcolm Maxwell accepted an administrative position at a hospital in Ontario.
Also on today’s agenda:

a financial update

discussion on NH’s aboriginal health plan

a possible announcement on health education foundation money

three presentations, including:

1. Councillor Lynne Christiansen with the City of Terrace’s Health Task Force,
2. Village of Queen Charlotte Mayor Carol Kulesha, former chair of the Island’s Health Watch, 3. Prince Rupert Port Authority - to be confirmed