Key figure in eHealth debacle resigns
Ron Sapsford stepped down as deputy health minister Nov. 13, 2009.
DARREN CALABRESE/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO 
Sapsford is the latest to step down or be forced out in the wake of revelations about the province's largely failed $1 billion push to create electronic health records for Ontarians.
He made headlines last month after the Star revealed his nearly $500,000 a year salary was funnelled through Hamilton Health Sciences to skirt government pay guidelines for senior bureaucrats.
After the story broke, Sapsford became known almost as well for his salary as for his role in the eHealth affair. The salary loophole was closed two weeks after it was revealed in the Star.
The eHealth scandal erupted in May when it was revealed eHealth Ontario handed out nearly $5 million in untendered contracts to high-priced consultants who billed nearly $3,000 a day yet dinged taxpayers for $1.65 cups of tea.
Last month, Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter reported the province had spent $1 billion of taxpayers' money, with little oversight, in the 10-year effort to bring health records online.
The scandal has led to the departure of a number of key figures in Premier Dalton McGuinty's second-term government. David Caplan quit as health minister in October. EHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer left in June, as did Dr. Alan Hudson, the eHealth board chair who was McGuinty's go-to man in health care.
On Thursday, eHealth Ontario let go two vice-presidents, Robin Tonna and Deanna Allen, in a restructuring bid to save about $250,000, said interim CEO Rob Devitt.
Yet it was Sapsford who as deputy minister was ultimately responsible, after the health minister, for the $42 billion health ministry and the electronic health record boondoggle, critics charge.
As deputy health minister for the past five years, Sapsford oversaw eHealth Ontario's predecessor, Smart Systems for Health Agency – which was launched in 2002 and lambasted by critics in 2007 for spending $647 million with little to show for it. The agency was dissolved last year.
Sapsford was behind the electronic health programs branch in the health ministry and the creation of the eHealth Ontario agency.
In his resignation memo to staff, obtained by the Star, Sapsford said health is a "wonderful, complicated, hair-raising, and rewarding ministry," one he will miss greatly.
The memo did not give a reason for his resignation, but critics were quick to link his departure to the eHealth affair.
"How much was the deputy simply doing the bidding of the health minister or premier's office?" asked Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. "That may be buried with this sudden resignation. This is why we need a full public inquiry in the eHealth boondoggle."
Sapsford was "the last man standing," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. "The very first thing that came to my mind when I heard this was it looks like we'll never get to the bottom of the eHealth scandal."
Sapsford declined interview requests by the Star in recent weeks.
He recently told a legislative committee looking into the eHealth affair that he was not aware untendered contracts were given out until he read about it in the press. He also disputed that $1 billion was wasted. He argued there was value obtained for the money spent, but he did acknowledge "some mistakes were made in the management of procurements" on a couple of projects.
Sapsford, a former chief operating officer at Hamilton Health Sciences, was appointed deputy health minister in March 2005. A grandfather who holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Toronto and a masters in health administration from the University of Ottawa, he also is a director on the boards of Canada Health Infoway and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Sapsford originally worked as deputy health minister for George Smitherman, who earned the nickname "Furious George" for his manner and the pace of change he brought to the usually slow-moving health ministry.
"George focused on the politics and Ron ran the department," said a former senior health staffer. "He was very engaged in the day-to-day stuff."
Smitherman credits Sapsford for helping him push through 10 pieces of legislation, including creation of 14 local health integration networks, bills to regulate traditional Chinese medicine and the omnibus health systems improvements act.
"Nothing came to me, before going to George, before Ron had signed off on it," said the source, who added Sapsford was "very hands-on" with the electronic health record initiative.
Being deputy minister of health has got to be one of the hardest jobs in the country, Smitherman said.
"It is certainly a powerful job, but in the grand scheme of things it is probably one of the five or 10 most impossible jobs, probably in the country," Smitherman said.
Health Minister Deb Matthews, who succeeded Caplan last month, said in a statement Sapsford "helped make measurable progress in the speed and quality of health care available" to Ontarians.
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