Heather Latter
After serving as chair or vice-chair of the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for the past six years, Fort Frances resident Janice (Jan) Beazley will be stepping away once her term ends next month.
“You can only serve two terms and I’m coming to the end of my second term,” she noted, though admitting she has mixed feelings about her departure.
“There are terrific people I have worked with,” Beazley said. “The staff and the board of the LHIN, there is a lot of dedication and passion there to really do what’s in the best interest of the residents of the northwest as it relates to health care.
“Everybody is very passionate about what they do,” she stressed. “I feel really good about making a difference and I feel we’ve done that.
“So I say mixed feelings—I’m happy to be stepping away but I feel very confident in stepping away that the LHIN is very well-served by the new board that’s there, the new chair and executive, and the CEO and the staff.”
As one of the original board members, Beazley has been with the non-profit organization since it was established in June, 2005. She served as vice-chair for three years and then as chair for three more.
The North West LHIN works with health-care providers, communities, and the public to set priorities and plan health services in Northwestern Ontario.
It covers the Thunder Bay and Rainy River districts and most of Kenora District, and is headquartered in Thunder Bay.
“When I was required to, I was travelling to Thunder Bay for meetings,” Beazley noted. “But we also had meetings throughout the region, so there was a fair bit of travel involved.
“I logged a lot of miles throughout the northwest in terms of driving, and some flying.
“Some of the places, if you look north of Sioux Lookout, you can’t access by road,” she explained.
Still, with the use of technology, such as videoconferencing and teleconferencing, at her home office, Beazley was able to plenty of work from home, as well.
“I’m really proud of the work the North West LHIN has been able to accomplish since our inception,” she stressed.
“The board has a strategic plan and we also have an Integrated Health Services Plan, and from that plan we did a lot of community and stakeholder engagements across the northwest to talk to people about their health-care needs, how they feel the system is working, and, of course, access to services is a big issue.”
Beazley indicated a lot of focus and attention was put into addressing emergency department wait times, chronic disease prevention and management, and long-term mental health and addictions.
And within these areas, the North West LHIN saw a number of accomplishments.
For example, within the Integrated Health Services Plan for this last year, the North West LHIN invested just over $5 million towards 42 initiatives that support services across the region.
“Many of those investments were made through the provincial emerg department ‘Pay-for-Results’ initiative because the idea is to try to keep people out of emerg when they don’t need to be there and keep them supported in the community, so that the hospital beds are there for people who truly need them,” Beazley said.
“There was a lot of emphasis and work put there.”
But despite all the accomplishments achieved, Beazley conceded there still is a lot of work to do.
“You can’t transform the health-care system overnight,” she remarked. “It’s kind of like the Titanic, it’s a huge, complex system.
“It takes working with everyone.
“I was really proud that people really pulled together to come up with what is felt to be the very best solution to serve our needs here in the northwest,” she added.
But Beazley no longer will be part of the North West LHIN board as it moves forward. Instead, she’s going to take some time to assess things.
“I haven’t made any formal commitments to any particular initiative at the moment,” she replied when asked what she’ll do once her term ends next month.
“My husband has just retired, so we’re just going to take some time before we make any major commitments and then decide how we want to get involved.
“I’ve always been involved in volunteering for community events, especially health-related work, such as the Women’s Health Symposium, and I’ve always enjoyed being a part of them,” Beazley said.
“So I’d still like to continue to be involved in the community and events like that.”
Meanwhile, Beazley hopes people in Northwestern Ontario appreciate the LHIN model and the work of the organization.
“I think people should be pleased that this model has provided for a level of local decision-making we’ve never had before,” she explained.
“When I think of the North West LHIN board, for example, it’s made up of people from the northwest,” she noted.
“And that’s huge for us because we live here, we understand the dynamics here in terms of the economy, in terms of geographic issues, so that better helps us in the kinds of decisions that need to be made for health care here,” she reasoned.
“And that’s been a critical success factor for us in being able to accomplish the things we’ve been able to accomplish.”
