LHSC to undergo a review before replacing board and CEO

London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is undergoing a detailed organizational review – with the support of a third party – before it will consider replacing its board and president/CEO.

The review, which will take four to five months to complete and involves administrative and physician professional staff leadership, said supervisor David Musyj on Wednesday during a virtual community update meeting. The review will do a deep dive into all of their programs including operations, policies, procedures, management and more, he added.

"It is not until we get the results of this governance review that we can start to talk about the renewal of the board of directors," he said. "Again, we must walk before we run. We must learn from the mistakes of the past and fix them moving forward. We're going to get there, but it's going to take a little time."

Over 100 recommendations are expected and so is action, said Musyj.

"Unlike other reports that might sit on a shelf and collect dust, the recommendations for this report will be ones that Ontario Health, the Ministry of Health and myself as supervisor will make sure are implemented. This will put LHSC on the proper [trajectory] moving forward."

It's not a race to the finish line either, said Musyj.

"Racing to a conclusion sometimes gets organizations in trouble or fails to correct historical issues that got them into a particular predicament in the first place. It took time to get into this predicament. It will take time to get out of it … get out of it properly."

Wednesday's virtual meeting caps off months of unrest and change at southwestern Ontario's largest hospital network.

LHSC has undergone sweeping changes over the last number of months in a bid to rein in a $150-million projected budget deficit. The board of directors has resigned and the province appointed Musyj, the longtime CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, as supervisor to help with management and administration concerns.

In August, LHSC fired five hospital executives with a combined tenure of over 20 years, and a combined 2023 salary of over $1.6 million.

In early September, Musyj eliminated more than 59 positions and reassigned 71 others from the Victoria, University and Children's hospital sites. He said it has resulted in a total of $14 million in savings.

Earlier this month, two former employees with the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) who were let go during recent rounds of layoffs filed wrongful dismissal suits against the Ontario hospital, claiming damages totalling in the hundreds of thousands each.

Musyj says LHSC will continue to host virtual community update meetings monthly. The next one is on Nov. 20.

- With files from Isha Bhargava and Alessio Donnini.