After months of public and increasingly serious criticism, Whitehorse General Hospital CEO Michael Aeberhardt has hit back with a spirited and convincing defence of his record: I’ve seen worse hospitals.  I kid you not.

The challenges facing Whitehorse General Hospital "pale in comparison" to other hospitals in the country, its chief executive officer says.

"As a person who comes from Vancouver, if I had to choose between receiving patient care at Whitehorse General Hospital or VGH [Vancouver General Hospital], I would choose Whitehorse General Hospital," said Michael Aeberhardt in an interview Wednesday following the hospital's annual meeting in Teslin.

I’ve received patient care at both WGH and VGH within the past three years, and I can’t say I noticed much difference.  Both hospitals have dedicated nurses and doctors.  (But if you need dialysis, WGH isn’t set up for that; you have to go to Vancouver or another southern hospital.)

Last week, a majority of the hospital's physicians signed a letter calling for his resignation.  The week before that, a former Chair of the Board of Trustees went public with concerns that the hospital is heading for a crisis of low morale and staffing shortages, and charged that the CEO is failing to address the situation. Mr Aerberhardt, however, continues to stonewall insist that everything is hunky-dory.

[H]e brushed off the charges of poor management under his leadership.

"I would humbly suggest that if the morale is that bad, why are people continuing to work within the hospital," he said. "I think at the end of the day, you know, it's probably a little overstated."

Aeberhardt turns the issue of low morale into a silly rhetorical question, but does not deny that staff morale is low.  Indeed, he gives no indication that he has gathered any first-hand information from rank-and-file employees about their working conditions.  He simply doesn’t know.  If he doesn’t know how morale is, how can he make intelligent management decisions?

He wonders why anyone is still working at the hospital.  Here’s a thought: Do you suppose that nurses’ concern for their patients has anything to do with that?  It sure isn’t because they love the CEO.

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