On Friday, October 23 the members of the new Alberta Health Services (AHS) board were announced, and a Drumheller criminal defense lawyer was on the list.
Hugh Sommerville, who practices in Drumheller was selected to help bring rural concerns to AHS.
“The province has decided to put a single board together to try and provide some stability to the health care system, to ensure its financial sustainability, and also generally work to try to provide a proper bit of leadership all across the province for the health care system,” he said.
Sommerville said when the five health regions were amalgamated into one, the former board was dismissed because of problems between it and the government at the time.
“The previous government, I think, was talking about trying to subdivide us back into individual regions. As I understand it, the minister has listened to the front line people who are just in shock from so much change that it is better just to try to stick with a stable system for now, and put one board back in place. They are trying to get a broad base of perspectives for that board and I particularly, am expected to bring something of a rural perspective to the board,” he explained.
Sommerville said the minister was trying to create a board with a number of different skill sets and experience, and that is how he was selected.
“One of the things they were looking for was someone with legal training. They were looking for someone who is generally rural and had a good feel for rural views on matters. They were also looking for someone with quite a bit of experience on the high level public interest board which is very different than a corporate board,” adding that he has been elected four times to the Law Society putting in his eighth year on the board of directors which is a public interest board.
“They were looking to fill a number of roles. They were looking for people with a certain education, certain experience, certain qualifications, I certainly don’t quite have all the qualifications they were looking for, but I have some of them and I think she is trying to carefully craft a board that has a good range of skills and experience,” he explained.
Sommerville said he was contacted to see if he was interested in becoming a member of the board.
“I think they looked to see who would have the skills that they wanted and I was contacted. I then went through an extensive interviewing process to ensure that I was the right kind of person for the board they were trying to put together,” he said.
“I am very honoured to be able to take rural perspectives to the table and work with the minister and the board colleagues. I am looking forward to it and I think hopefully we can provide a more stable health care system,” he told The Mail.
The other members of the board include board chair Linda Hughes, Vice Chair Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn and members David Carpenter, Glenda Yeates, Marliss Taylor and Richard Dicerni.
