Highlights of the Board of Directors’ regular public meeting

Bathurst, Tuesday, October 6, 2020 – The Board of Directors of Vitalité Health Network held its regular public meeting on Tuesday, October 6, 2020 via an online conferencing system.

Working in a pandemic against the backdrop of a labour shortage

In his report, the Network’s President and CEO, Gilles Lanteigne, summarized the efforts in recent months to continue providing safe and high-quality care and services against the backdrop of the pandemic.  The work has centred on four major priorities, namely: (1) COVID-19 screening clinics and the assessment of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) across the Network; (2) the resumption of simulations in the COVID-19 units, with the first step being to review the labour force redeployment plan; (3) a mass vaccination strategy for seasonal influenza across the Network in support of frontline physicians; (4) the development of a model to determine the number of COVID-19 beds required, including an evaluation of the hospitals’ human resources capacity.

Mr. Lanteigne explained that the challenges posed by the acute labour shortages in several sectors, the high patient loads, and the sharp increases in the hospitals’ occupancy rates remained concerning. “The effects are being felt on the ground, as the most recent episode in the Emergency Department of the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre illustrated. All this highlights the need to continually re-evaluate our service delivery so that required adjustments can be made in order to support our services and ensure they are sustainable,” he said.

The CEO closed by warmly thanking employees and physicians for their tremendous work during this exceptional period. 

Approval of the Capital Master Plan for the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre (UHC)

The Department of Health recently approved in its entirety the Capital Master Plan (CMP) for the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC. The Board of Directors had adopted this plan at its December 10, 2019 meeting with the objective of establishing a coherent and realistic plan that would ensure the UHC develops smoothly over the next 20 years.

The project to build a parking garage in the preliminary phase of the CMP (2020–2022) had also been presented to the Department of Health. Our CEO sees this as excellent news for the future and development of the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC. “We hope to receive a positive answer quickly so that we can launch this project as soon as possible,” he explained.

Financial results for the 2020–2021 fiscal year

The Network presented its financial results for the first four months of the 2020–2021 fiscal year, i.e. from April 1 to July 31, 2020; the organization ended the period with a $7.5 million operating surplus. This was largely due to the temporary slowdown in regular activities during the pandemic, which resulted in an $11 million reduction in expenses.  The Network estimates that the costs related to the pandemic totaled $4.6 million for the months of April to July 2020 (salaries, benefits, medications and medical and surgical supplies).

Groupe d’infirmières et infirmiers francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick

Lise Guerrette-Daigle, President of the Groupe d’infirmières et infirmiers francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick (GIIFNB), attended the meeting. She gave a presentation on this new organization’s vision and mission and the actions it had taken to date and summarized access to the nursing profession since 1970. She then discussed the problems related to the nursing profession entrance examination, the NCLEX-RN, in place since 2015. According to her, the solution lay in adopting the bilingual Canadian examination developed by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN).

Retirement of the President and CEO

The Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Michelyne Paulin, reminded the members of the imminent departure of Gilles Lanteigne, President and CEO of the Network, who was retiring on October 30.  Ms. Paulin also took the opportunity to review his impressive career (education and professional life) extending over more than four decades. The Chairperson then highlighted the key achievements over his five-year term. “It would be tedious to list all the advancements that occurred during Mr. Lanteigne’s term but I have chosen a few, including the establishment of a sleep clinic at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC, the addition of rheumatology services in Edmundston and Bathurst, the expansion of neurology services in Moncton, Bathurst and Campbellton, the development of the organization’s university mission and the construction of the new Centre for Precision Medicine in Moncton.”

The Chairperson closed by underlining Mr. Lanteigne’s exceptional leadership, positive attitude and tremendous dedication to the Network. “His work with the Board of Directors has been exemplary and has allowed us to improve our governance system. I know that I am not the only one who is grateful to him and I would like to thank him for his entire contribution,” she added. “After a fruitful career of over forty-five years in the health care field, I wish him a long, enjoyable and rewarding retirement.”

New name

During the meeting, the Board of Directors ratified a resolution passed by its Governance and Nomination Committee concerning the adoption of a new name for the Network, more specifically, “Vitalité University Health Network.”  This change is consistent with the Network’s vision of developing its university and research mission to strengthen its organizational culture of continuous quality improvement. The next step will consist of submitting this resolution to the Department of Health for approval.

The next regular public meeting of the Board of Directors of the Network will be held on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, at 1:00 p.m., in Moncton.