Stanton Territorial Health Authority (STHA) made the moves at a special meeting Wednesday night.

"The board met at 5 p.m. and they made a number of recommendations. One motion was that they terminate the CEO (Dennis Cleaver). The second motion was the board be dissolved," said Health Minister Michael Miltenberger.

He accepted both recommendations.

In the interim, deputy health minister Dave Murray will oversee matters formerly dealt with by STHA.

Al Woods, CEO of Yellowknife Health and Social Services, will be acting CEO of Stanton Territorial Hospital.

"All the attention over the last couple of months has focused on the CEO and the board. Hopefully now, with this very contentious political issue out of the way, we can move on," said Miltenberger.

The minister said the decision whether to a reappoint the board will come in the new year.

Miltenberger added the government plans to review health boards on a territorial basis.

Getting out of the way

Larry Elkin, who chaired the board until Wednesday night, said directors believed they had to step out of the way in order for changes to be made.

"First of all when dealing with certain issues the board has always been committed to providing the highest level of care. Over the last two years we've had our growing range of problems and the board has attempted to deal, with some success, with those problems," said Elkin.

The fact that problems persisted, Elkin said, sparked the need for an operational review.

"The board was pleased with the report. It was very clear that big things needed to be done," he said.

The review made 37 recommendations ranging from recruitment efforts at the hospital to improving internal and external communication.

"The climate isn't right for the board to do it. The best thing was pro-actively requesting the minister to dissolve the board and let the minister take a very direct role in the operation of Stanton and achieve the changes that have been recommended," he said.

Former board member David Wind said the decision to dissolve was the best one under the current circumstances.

"We weren't making the changes needed to improve things, things were escalating instead," said Wind.

"I would have liked to have been a member of the board to implement the recommendations. But, if the confidence in the board is not there we better bring in a regime that can get things done and the staff does have confidence in."