The fraud investigation at London Health Sciences Centre needs to move quickly to safeguard public trust and staff morale, but the Ontario government also has to act, the Opposition health critic at Q

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The fraud investigation at London Health Sciences Centre needs to move quickly to safeguard public trust and staff morale, but the Ontario government also has to act, the Opposition health critic at Queen’s Park said Monday.

The investigation grabbed the attention of France Gelinas who said she’s concerned patients and workers, including doctors and nurses, may be angered by how money was handled. 

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“At this point, public trust is what I am most worried about. Our hospitals manage a large amount of money,” Gelinas said after question period in the provincial legislature.

“LHSC is a large community hospital with a more than $1 billion budget, and if health care is to be delivered, there has to be trust,” she said.

“We are not making widgets here, we are offering care to people. The community has to trust the hospital and the people who work there. A police investigation may shake the trust of people who need care.”

LHSC stunned many in the London area when it announced Oct. 30 London police had launched a fraud investigation at the hospital after administration expressed concern over financial irregularities.

That investigation will focus on multiple areas of the administration and several individuals, a hospital official confirmed recently.

The criminal investigation comes after several scandal-plagued years at LHSC, including controversies about international travel by executives, executive compensation, organizational restructuring and the dissolution of formal ties with St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

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The hospital is running a $150-million deficit for 2024-25 and saw its chief executive step away amid controversy a year ago when nearly $500,000 was spent on overseas trips for senior staff.

Gelinas said she’s concerned about the impact the investigation may have on hospital staff, including those working in areas where additional funding requests may have been denied.

“The people who work there, physicians and nurses, therapists, lab techs, may have asked for money to better care and been told they don’t have money for that. How do you think they feel with financial irregularities” now under investigation? said Gelinas, who holds the northern Ontario riding of Nickel Belt for the NDP.

“They may be let down, disappointed and angry. Nothing good comes from that. They have to deal with anything that breaks that trust with patient care. Health care is between human beings.”

The announcement of the police investigation comes five weeks after the province appointed a supervisor to run LHSC, a move that triggered the voluntary resignation of the hospital’s board of directors.

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David Musyj, who was seconded from Windsor Regional Hospital to LHSC in May, is reporting directly to the Ministry of Health during his 18-month term as supervisor.

The province appointed Musyj as supervisor due to LHSC’s “concerning financial performance” including the deficit in its 2024-25 budget year. His role is to scrutinize “concerning financial performance that (was) found as a result of a third-party review,” the ministry said at the time.

Although Musyj is the Health Ministry representative on site, the government ultimately may decide what action is to be taken at LHSC, Gelinas said. Any change initiated as a result of the investigation, when it comes to oversight and ensuring proper handling of finances, rests with the government, she said.

The province also has the authority to conduct its own investigation, Gelinas said. 

“The government has a lot of authority over hospitals,” she said. “It has power. It has to use that power to rebuild trust. It has to make sure there are changes to turn the page.”

As for financial oversight at LHSC, it does conduct internal audits. On Monday the hospital’s new chief financial officer and vice-president of facilities Nicholas Vlacholias began work, replacing Abhi Mukherjee, whose employment was terminated in August.

ndebono@postmedia.com

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