Feb. 28, 2011 - When Nothumberland Hills Hospital in Ontario had to cut its budget (here's background on the deficit story), the head of the hospital, Robert Biron, asked residents for help. They created a Citizens' Advisory Panel on Health Service Prioritization. The Globe & Mail reports that the process of choosing 28 people for the panel began with a civic lottery. Once the panel was formed, in five days it learned how the health care system works, then recommended ways to reduce spending. One was to get rid of outpatient rehabilitation services, and move the diabetes complication prevention strategy clinic to another agency. Regardless of the precise outcomes, what's interesting here is that the people who run the hospital included the community in the process, which gives members of the community a deeper understanding of themselves and their neighbours, a greater sense of control over their lives, and a larger concept of how the health care system works. Mr. Biron told the Northumberland News: "The hospital's a publicly funded institution. We're ultimately accountable to our community. When you expand the process to include various stakeholders you can arrive at better decisions."  Link to the hospital's final report on the Citizens' Advisory Panel.

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