Kathy McPhail has been named CEO for Manitoba's Southern Regional Health Authority (RHA). She was previously the CEO with the Central authority before last week's merger.

"I feel privileged and honoured to remain CEO," said McPhail. "I am glad they trust me and the leadership skills that I bring."

It is unsure if there was competition, as McPhail was only asked if she wanted to be CEO. There was no interview process.

"That was handled at the government level," she said. "They asked if I was interested and that is how I came to be CEO."

With McPhail having to now oversee a larger region (now that the former South Eastman is included as well), there will be some learning curves that she will have to face.

"Two large focuses will be the volume pressure and a strong focus on the senior citizen population," she said.

Volume pressure will most definitely be felt throughout most of the merged RHAs, as they now have a much greater population area then in past years.

Focusing on senior citizens will be targeted towards living care and how they can remain independent.

"We will be creating a senior strategy that will hopefully improve living conditions for seniors in the Southern RHA," she said.

A smaller change for McPhail will be handling French services. In the former South Eastman region, there is a large population of French Canadians.

"We are working to set up French services for those in our region that require it," she said.

Manitoba Health expects to see a reduction of 30-35 RHA positions across the province, with the administrative savings going towards front line care.

"Front line care will not change," she said. "There will be no impact of the service or care that citizens will receive. This is purely an administrative change."

jordan.maxwell@sunmedia.ca