Editorial – Evading the Questions Doesn’t Make the Problem Go Away With the Local Health Unit

Pete Fisher
3 years ago
• Categories: Editorial

Editorial – With yesterday’s revelation the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit could have released COVID statistics by a lower tier municipality came as no surprise to anyone.

Many other municipalities were doing it at the beginning of COVID, all but a very select few weren’t. Including HKPR District Health Unit.

Today’s Northumberland questioned it, but it was only Port Hope resident Randy Fallis that was persistent enough to go the distance in finding the answers.

And after 20-months of waiting, the Information and Privacy Commission gave it’s decision that the information being requested was granted.

In part of the decision the Adjudicator stated, that since July 2020 the health unit had access to confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Fallis had asked for basic information regarding people who had been confirmed with COVID-19 on a lower-tier municipality (towns, townships). The health unit was only releasing information on a upper-tier which would entail Northumberland County.

“I would think that the information being requested would seem to align squarely with the type of information that would enhance, rather than hinder, the health unit’s capacity to understand outbreak patterns and manage the pandemic,” stated the Adjudicator in the 22-page decision.

This one sentence sums up what Fallis and members of the community felt at the time. The issue was conveying it to the health unit to understand. On top of that was the frustrations that many other health units in the province were releasing the information that Fallis was requesting.

So what is the reason to go through a 20-month wait?

Frankly, there is none.

Even when Fallis went to the Board of the health unit he was met with roadblocks.

The Medical Officer of Health has resigned, so trying to find answers to her decision would be difficult at best.

But members of the board are still in place.

So the questions should be posed to them. And Today’s Northumberland did that yesterday.

An e-mail was sent yesterday to Manager of Communications, Ashley Beaulac asking if we could interview the Chair of the Board. Here are some other questions we posed.

Given the Board supported Dr. Nosewothy’s decision to not release data that was being released by other Health Units across the Province do they think they owe the people of this riding and apology? Especially given the comments from the adjudicator.

How much were the legal bill to defend this.

Did they not know what other public health units were doing in terms of releasing the exact information Mr Fallis was looking for?

This is the vague response we received that answers none of the questions posed.

“Upon receipt of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s response providing further clarification on how to best protect an individual’s right to privacy while also publishing aggregate COVID-19 statistics, staff at the Health Unit immediately revised the way in which we report data to further delineate between the districts we represent, and the case counts reflected within each lower-tier municipality. To that extent we have proactively started to publish this revised reporting structure through our COVID-19 EPI Dashboard three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, accessible on our website. The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit remains committed to providing information in a respectful, responsible and appropriate way,” states Dr. Natalie Bocking who is Medical Officer of Health for the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit.

Dr. Bocking either wasn’t notified of the questions posed or clearly decided not to answer them.

Dr. Bocking wasn’t the MOH when Fallis put in the Freedom of Information Request. Who knows if things would have been done differently if she was at the helm Maybe that would be another question posed.

But when people get positions such as Medical Officer of Health, or Chair of the Board, they have to understand there comes a time when they have to face difficult questions.

Hiding behind a desk, letting the Communications Officer come up with a vague, written statement doesn’t cut it for the community.

Beaulac stated the statement the comment Fallis made in yesterdays story was “very wrong.”

Fallis stated in the story, the health unit “had blown their budget this past year.”

Beaulac said, they were over budget by only $600.

Back to the issue at hand. During the first months of COVID it was extremely hard getting answers from the local health unit to basic questions.

Things have changed dramatically since then. But that doesn’t mean the Chair of the Board should be allowed to vanish as if it never took place.

The people the health unit and board serves deserve to know.