Sam Sondhi appears to have stepped away from his role as chair of the troubled community health hub’s board. But nobody at Cohealth was commenting late today.
It appears that troubled community health hub Cohealth is once again without a chair of the board.
Long-time chair Kerry Thompson stepped down in January of this year after nine years in the role.
She was replaced by Kate MacRae who took over just as the independent review of the organisation’s management and culture, led by Professor Stephen Duckett, began its work.
In April Ms MacRae stood down, with Cohealth saying “the level of sustained community and stakeholder engagement required, and the significant time commitment this places on the role” had caused MacRae to step down “due to personal commitments”.
Now it seems Ms MacRae’s replacement, Sam Sondhi has also stepped away.
A biography on the website of Futurity Investment Group – Mr Sondhi is the company’s CEO – describes him as “the former Chair of Cohealth Limited”.
The Medical Republic attempted to confirm the news with Cohealth late today, but received no response to our questions about Mr Sondhi.
A spokesperson did respond to questions about the appointment yesterday of Chris Altis as the Victorian government’s monitor on the Cohealth board, however.
“Cohealth welcomes the … appointment of Chris Altis as Board Monitor for an initial 12-month term and looks forward to working constructively with him,” said the spokesperson.
“Mr Altis brings significant health sector experience to the role and will work alongside the Board as Cohealth continues to strengthen its governance, leadership, communication and community engagement.
“Significant work is already underway, including substantial Board and leadership renewal and implementation of the Independent Review recommendations 10-13, which are directed to Cohealth.
“The Board is focused on strengthening Cohealth for the future, rebuilding trust and confidence, and ensuring the communities we serve continue to have access to the care and support they rely on.
“Cohealth will continue to work constructively with the Victorian and Commonwealth governments toward the shared goal of delivering safe, sustainable primary care for vulnerable Victorians and the communities who rely on these services.”
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Meanwhile, the man who called for the sacking of the board of Cohealth, Professor Stephen Duckett, has endorsed Mr Altis.
Writing on LinkedIn yesterday, Professor Duckett said he was happy to see the development.
“Governance at Cohealth was shown in our report to be abysmal, and it lost sight of its purpose,” he said. “It totally lost the trust of the community.
“I’ve worked with Chris Altis for a long time, including for more than a decade in governance roles.
“He is an excellent communicator, a strong and insightful strategist, and deeply committed to community engagement.
“He will be well placed to ‘monitor’ what Cohealth is doing to fix the mess it is in, including changing the internal culture, getting the doctors reinvolved developing a new service model, and rebuilding community engagement and trust.”
Mr Altis is a veteran health executive with 30 years of experience in the health sector – working in policy and advisory roles in Victoria and nationally.
He is currently a non-executive director at the Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and the William Angliss Institute.
He will report directly to the Victorian government to ensure Cohealth is improving and meeting the expected standards.
Victorian minister for health Harriet Shing said the appointment was a “turning point” for the troubled community hub.
“[It’s also an] important opportunity for Cohealth to demonstrate integrity, transparency, and accountability,” she said.
“Cohealth provides care to some of Victoria’s most vulnerable patients and clients, and it has a responsibility to address the issues identified in the review, and rebuild trust with the community.”
The Duckett review made 13 recommendations for Cohealth, the commonwealth government and the Victorian government, including a recommendation that the board be sacked.
The report gave the Victorian Department of Health the choice of two options:
- Option 1: Give Cohealth an opportunity to improve itself; or
- Option 2: Refresh Cohealth with new governance and, potentially, new management.
Since then, the Cohealth board has apologised to its staff and patients and has advertised for new directors.
