The hospital’s newest vice-president wins this week’s award for stating the obvious when she proclaimed, “We’re on the right track here, for sure, in seeing the success that you can have when you continue to to keep the patient at the centre of everything that you do.”
It’s that kind of bafflegab logic from top executives at St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital, like Karen Davies quoted above, that is being raised up the flagpole to justify sending four individuals 15,000 km to Singapore to get a glimpse at how their healthcare system operates.
When questioned by T-J reporter Nick Lypaczewski this week, patient-centered care was incorporated into as many answers as possible.

Our medical knowledge is limited to watching Dr. Oz now and then, but surely the focus of any hospital is caring for the patient. Why else would we be there?
In today’s techno-centred world, how can you justify jetting a quartet of execs – at taxpayer expense – to far-flung corners to acknowledge “we’re on the right track.”
When the T-J tried to peg Davies down on specifics of her learning curve, she said there are too many points in the journey of a patient from the time they enter to the time they leave to pinpoint anything.
No sense trying to explain to us neophytes. – we’re just the patients.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath summed it up best, “Our precious health dollars are better invested in frontline services than sending people all the way around the world to observe other systems.”
Hospital CEO Paul Collins has tried to defuse the situation by downplaying the $16,000 tab as relatively inexpensive.
Horwath counters with its just more of the same-old, same-old under new premier Kathleen Wynne.
“It is the same old status quo problems that keep coming up,” Horwath advised.
All of this at a time when the hospital needs to hit up the community for millions of dollars .
In a letter to the editor, reader Tom Por was succinct.
“There are, in St. Thomas, many pensioners, like myself, who have limited pensions but because STEGH is our hospital, in our community, we make some sacrifices so that if there is only one or two organizations we want to support, the hospital is one of them.”
You don’t think he’s re-hashing his options after this debacle?

2012 SUNSHINE CLUB MEMBERS
Last week we briefly referenced the 2012 public sector salary disclosure for city hall employees who earned more than $100,000.
Here is the full list and the 2011 salary in brackets:
Arbuckle, Barbara, director Ontario Works – $106,323.94 (new)
Barnes, Scott, police sergeant – $103,018.06 (new)
Bonnett, Derek, firefighter – $101,282.85 (new)
Brett, Scott, firefighter – $103,059.12 (new)
Brisseau, Mark, captain fire department – $120,355.19 ($107,871.76)
Broadbent, Robert, fire chief – $138,663.14 ($127,496.56)
Butters, Kevin, captain fire department – $113,620.60 ($104,962.28)
Carnegie, Brian, police sergeant – $104,402.32 (new)
Carroll, Michael, Valleyview administrator – $112,20455 ($107,975.14)
Clement, Brian, manager of engineering – $103,215.84 (new)
Dart, Graham, director human resources – $121,089.56 ($116,552.80)
Day, Bill, city treasurer – $130,141.22 ($125,270.67)
Denham, Rudi, library CEO – $113,276.95) ($108,286.31)
Dewancker, John, director environmental services – $132.309.36 ($127,438.78)
Didyk, Derek, firefighter – $102,505.06 (new)
Donker, Steve, captain fire department – $121,286.32 ($106,178.41)
Driedger, Jeff, police inspector – $136,668.88 ($127,192.76)
Eaton, Robert, captain fire department – $111,574.42 ($107,728.99)
Gonyou, Joyce, director of nursing – $109,648 ($106,759.59)
Graves, Wendell, CAO/city clerk – $166,315.48 ($146,217.59)
Gregory, David, captain fire department – $111,494.53 ($101,256.11)
Heard, Barry, firefighter – $106,802.86 (new)
Herridge, Chris, staff sergeant – $111,405.36 ($102,827.04)
Hikele, Richard, captain fire department – $114,331.47 ($107,231.61)
Hill, Glenn, training officer fire department – $113,569.45 ($108,665.18)
Hulst, James, captain fire department – $116,011.79 ($106,592.98)
Keenan, Patrick, director of planning – $121,089.56 ($116,552.80)
Kernohan, Kevin, platoon chief – $126,908.93 ($120,140.84)
Knight, David, firefighter – $100,421.35 (new)
Kowalczyk, Judy, staff sergeant – $114,744.44 ($106,451.00)
Kuzminski, Alex, firefighter – $102,991.29 (new)
Leverton, Brian, fire prevention officer – $110,615.39 ($100,788.16)
Lynch, Bill, police chief – $161,984.24 ($150,976.60)
Marcinkiewicz, Steve, firefighter – $105,680.33 (new)
McCready, Cyril, water/wastewater supervisor – $101.268.64 (new)
Mundt, Randy, staff sergeant – $117,328.96 ($108,523.56)
Newton, Sue, sergeant – $106,280.52 (new)
Nielsen, Anders, constable – $100,680.90 (new)
Ormerod, Ray, deputy fire chief – $116,190.89 ($107,486.76)
Perrin, Chris, sergeant – $108,704.49 ($100,347.33)
Pinnell, Darryl, deputy police chief – $145,768.72 ($134,217.88)
Powers, Mike, firefighter – $102,394.93 (new)
Roskamp, Marc, staff sergeant – $103,349.70 (new)
Scott, Warren, platoon chief – $127,442.92 ($113,264.51)
Sebestyen, Elizabeth, housing administrator – $107,586.32 (new)
Smith, Kyle, captain fire department – $107,684.08 (new)
Stewart, Brad, firefighter – $105,936.79 (new)
Thomas, Ian, firefighter – $104,152.09 (new)
Todd, Bill, chief fire prevention officer – $112,661.68 ($104,937.80)
Traichevich, Mark, police inspector – $136,487.92 ($127,192.76)
Tucker, Ross, director parks and recreation – $105,030.44 ($108,810.16)
Waite, Barry, firefighter – $111,004.95 (new)
Walters, Mark, platoon chief – $121,696.85 ($112,342.94)
Wells, Reagan, sergeant – $102,275.72 (new)
Willson, Rodger, platoon chief – $119,514.61 ($111,474.53)
Withenshaw, Steve, staff sergeant – $114,136.26 ($108,669.32)
Yates, Russ, staff sergeant – $114,459.28 ($105,233.64)
Zehr, Henry, staff sergeant – $110,087.60 ($104,636.51)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When I hear about city council allocating $300,000 for a new skate park, it would be nice to see the same consideration for something that is already built and which provides exercise for children all the way up to seniors.”
Lisa Dimbleby, who will appear before council Monday to urge the city to repair and upgrade the tennis courts at Pinafore Park.
City Scope appears Saturday in the Times-Journal. Questions and comments may be emailed to ian.mccallum@cityscope.ca.