The provincial government has appointed David Musyj as supervisor to oversee London Health Sciences Centre’s operations amid a mass resignation by the hospital’s board of directors, the latest chapter in major restructuring at the region’s largest hospital.

Musyj, named interim president and chief executive in May, is now the supervisor of LHSC, the hospital said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday.

Musyj will “address concerns regarding hospital governance and operations, and management practices, including concerning financial performance, that were found as a result of a third-party review,” Ontario’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.

A regularly scheduled meeting of LHSC’s board of directors on Wednesday was abruptly cancelled Tuesday evening. The hospital announced Wednesday that board members voluntarily stepped down from their posts “in acknowledgment of the need for a fresh path for LHSC under new leadership.”

Musyj will be providing “regular updates on his work, leading to a final report that will help restore effective governance structures and practices, improve hospital finances and stabilize operations at the London Health Sciences Centre,” the ministry said in a statement Wednesday morning.

“I will be working with the government to strengthen the governance, accountability and ability of our organization to deliver the best care possible to the communities we serve,” Musyj said in the statement.

“I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure that we continue to thrive, to innovate, and to provide the best possible care to our community.”

The province, the primary source of funding for hospitals, has the power to appoint a supervisor to oversee the operations of institutions that are facing challenges. In June, the province appointed a supervisor for a hospital in Renfrew, near Ottawa, over “concerning financial practices.”

In his statement Wednesday, Musyj said he was not going to make decisions about LHSC in isolation and was committed to establishing an advisory committee of community members to provide direct feedback on the hospital’s next steps.

Under Musyj’s leadership so far, LHSC terminated 59 managers and demoted 71 others with pay cuts earlier this month as part of a strategy to fix a $150-million deficit in its 2024-25 fiscal year. Musyj said further job cuts were possible as the hospital works to balance its books.

Windsor also has experience with a hospital supervisor taking over. Ontario’s health minister in 2011 appointed Ken Deane to fix what were seen as long-standing problems in the workplace culture at what was then Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital.

One of Deane’s first actions was firing the Windsor hospital’s CEO. When his work was done 18 months later, Deane stayed on as Hotel-Dieu CEO, a position he retained until Windsor’s hospital services realignment between Hotel-Dieu and Windsor Regional Hospital in 2013.

Musyj, on secondment to LHSC from Windsor Regional Hospital, replaced Jackie Schleifer Taylor, who had been chief executive since 2021. Schleifer Taylor went on a medical leave of absence in November 2023, and the hospital announced June 11 she was no longer employed at LHSC.

Windsor Regional Hospital, in a statement Wednesday, said its board had approved Musyj’s leave of absence as LHSC supervisor and that Karen Riddell would remain as acting-president and CEO.

“We wish David the best on his appointment as Supervisor of LHSC and continue to look forward to Karen’s exceptional leadership as Acting President and CEO of WRH,” board chair Patti France said in the statement.

Under Schleifer Taylor’s tenure at the helm of LHSC, which came after the abrupt termination of Paul Woods over pandemic travel, the hospital moved to sever ties with St. Joseph’s Health Care London and wind down various joint ventures. LHSC also aggressively restructured its top ranks under Schleifer Taylor’s leadership, adding additional roles and terminating long-time executives.

LHSC’s major deficit comes as spending by hospital brass on travel and salaries attracted significant negative public backlash. Last fall, LHSC sent 16 senior staff and executives to an international hospital conference in Portugal and six executives to the United Arab Emirates. A third scheduled trip to Australia by 11 senior staff was cancelled at the last minute. The cost of the travel was $470,000.

In 2023, Schleifer-Taylor was the fourth-highest paid hospital executive in Ontario, and the only one outside Toronto pulling in salary and benefits of more than $800,000.

— With files from Doug Schmidt