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Council Members Appointed

23 October 2008

Patient Safety & Quality Council Members Appointed

VICTORIA - Health Services Minister George Abbott today announced the appointment of Evelyn D. Carroll, Brian A. Stamp, John G. Taylor and Dr. Kimberly van der Woerd as members of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council.

The Province committed to establishing the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council in the 2008 throne speech. The council provides advice and recommendations to the Minister of Health Services on matters related to patient safety and the quality of health care in B.C. In May 2008, the Province announced the appointment of Dr. Doug Cochrane as chair of the council.

Today I am pleased to welcome four highly qualified individuals as members of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council, said Abbott. With these appointments and the creation of the council, we are building on our existing initiatives to support the delivery of safe, high quality health services to all British Columbians and delivering on our commitment to create more transparency and accountability in our public health care system.

The new council members will work with Dr. Cochrane to bring a coordinated and consistent provincial approach to patient safety and quality improvement and will provide support to health authorities and other service delivery partners in their efforts to improve the safety and quality of care.

I look forward to working with my fellow council members and with stakeholders from across the health system to ensure that patients in every region of B.C. receive safe, quality care, said Cochrane. Each new council member brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and a unique perspective that will be invaluable as we move forward in our mandate of promoting and improving patient safety in B.C.

Evelyn Carroll is a retired nurse and health care consultant with many years of hospital-based nursing experience in a wide range of roles. Ms. Carroll is former director of professional services for the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia and has been an active member of a number of health boards. She served as vice-chair of the BC Research Institute for Children's and Women's Health, as chair of the BC Transplant Society and most recently, as a board member of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) and the board chair of PHSA's Quality and Access Committee.

Brian Stamp has been a practising lawyer in Campbell River for over 30 years and served as a Vancouver Island Health Authority board member from 2002 to 2007. Mr. Stamp is the chair of the Campbell River Economic Development Corporation and spent 12 years as a member of the Campbell River District Hospital Society, with several of those years as chair.

John Taylor is a chartered accountant with 28 years experience in senior financial and accounting roles at Teck Corporation. Mr. Taylor is currently a director and treasurer with the Vancouver Society and director and chair of the Audit Committee of the PRT Income Trust.

Dr. Kimberley van der Woerd holds a PhD in Psychology from Simon Fraser University and is a member of the Namgis First Nation. Dr. van der Woerd has 12 years of experience conducting program evaluations and conducting research in the area of Aboriginal health and youth health issues and is a board member of the Women's Health Research Institute.

The council consists of seven members - the chair (the BC Patient Safety and Quality Officer), four additional members and two ex-officio members: a Ministry of Health Services representative and the UBC Academic Chair for Patient Safety. The chair of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council is eligible to serve a three-year term with council members appointed for two-year terms. Both the chair and council members may be reappointed for additional terms at the discretion of the Minister of Health Services.

Since 2001, the Province has implemented a number of initiatives aimed at improving patient safety in B.C., including investing more than $2.3 million to support the provincewide implementation of the B.C. Patient Safety Learning System. The Patient Safety Learning System, the first of its kind in Canada, is an electronic incident reporting information system that provides improved reporting and response to safety and risk-related incidents occurring in the healthcare system.

The Province also supports the Safer Healthcare Now! campaign, a national campaign aimed at reducing preventable complications and deaths in Canadian hospitals and community healthcare settings.

For more information on the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council and for full biographies of all council members, please click here.

Media contact:
Bernadette Murphy
Media Relations Manager
Ministry of Health Services
250 952-1887 (media line)
250 213-9590 (cell)

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