Health P.E.I. is encouraging Islanders to participate in the corporation’s annual general meeting Wednesday night, even if they can’t attend in person.
Islanders in all three counties will be able to participate in Health P.E.I.’s second AGM, which takes place at Charlottetown’s Murchison Centre, 15-17 St. Pius X Ave. at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Dr. Kinsey Smith, chair of Health P.E.I.’s public engagement committee, will be master of ceremonies and said the meeting will in one sense have a formal agenda, and in another sense there is a way to engage the public while encouraging a transparent relationship.
“The idea is we’re trying to make it accessible to the whole Island,” said Smith. “It will be recorded and will appear on Eastink TV sometime after the event.”
Smith said the AGM had a good turnout last year, with three to four hundred individuals and a fair amount of interchange.
“Although not as much outside Charlottetown as we might have had,” he said.
This year, sites have been added in Prince and Kings Counties where the public can watch the proceedings and submit questions electronically if they not able to attend the actual meeting.
Those sites are the Western Hospital boardroom in Alberton, the Prince County Hospital St. Lawrence room in Summerside, and the third floor boardroom of Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague.
Those who can’t make it to the sites can follow the proceedings online at www.healthpei.ca/annualmeeting and submit questions via online chat.
The AGM will have the theme of “Quality Health Care in Tight Financial Times” and will include updates, a financial report and moderated panel discussion where Islanders will get the opportunity to voice their questions.
Smith added a highlight will be guest speaker Dr. G. Ross Baker of the University of Toronto’s Department of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, a world authority on patient safety and quality improvement.
“Often the public seems to be more interested in what’s available than the quality of what we deliver. Quality and safety is the theme we’re going after, this is very important to Health PEI,” added Smith. “He (Baker) is internationally connected, so he can talk about health care in a number of jurisdictions, both in North America and the other side of the pond.
