Northern Health Region CEO steps down, group names acting leader

The health region covering most of northern Manitoba is looking for a new leader.

Northern Health Region CEO Raj Sewda will be stepping down from the job effective later this month, according to an announcement released by the region Jan. 6. Sewda’s departure was first announced internally Jan. 2.

The Jan. 6 statement confirmed that Sewda was resigning and the region’s board of directors had accepted the resignation. No firm date or reason for his departure was announced.

In the statement, Sewda was quoted as saying it was an honour to serve the north, and he was grateful for the dedication and collaboration of those he worked with.

“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Raj for his service and commitment to the NHR,” board chair Kelsey Horrocks said in the statement.

Requests to the region for more information about Sewda’s departure were not answered as of Wednesday evening.

Sewda took over the job in March 2023, joining after Helga Bryant retired from the post. Bryant had been the CEO of Northern Health and one of its predecessors, the Nor-Man Regional Health Authority, since 2010. Following her retirement, Bryant became the new dean of nursing for University College of the North.

As CEO, Sewda oversaw the region’s response to last summer’s northern wildfires. Several NHR facilities were evacuated and residents in its long-term care facilities were moved across Manitoba. None of the region’s facilities were seriously damaged and all residents were returned once the fires eased.

Cam Ritzer is taking over as the region’s acting CEO. Originally a paramedic by trade and a former council member for the College of Paramedics of Manitoba, Ritzer had been the NHR’s vice-president of health services, community and continuing care. Ritzer, who is based in The Pas, was the group’s acting incident commander during the the 2025 fires.

Challenges have included safety, shutdowns, racism

The region did not see major reductions in service or facility closures with Sewda at the helm, but did see its largest facility, Thompson General Hospital, officially grey-listed by the Manitoba Nurses Union in December. The union took the step after a pair of safety incidents at the hospital — one on Christmas Eve 2024 when a man came to the hospital with a firearm, pointed it at a staff member, then shot out a window in the hospital’s chapel, then a second one last September when a patient was stabbed by a visitor while receiving treatment.

Other long-term closures of service, including the shutdown of obstetrics care at Flin Flon General Hospital, have not been reversed. Birth care at the hospital was shut down in 2018, with NHR leadership saying it was due to staff issues. More than seven years later, expectant parents in and near Flin Flon still have to travel out of town, sometimes to Winnipeg or cities in Saskatchewan, to give birth.

The region has also seen accusations of racism in treatment. That includes an instance in 2023 when a member of Tataskweyak Cree Nation reported for treatment at St. Anthony’s General Hospital in The Pas with sharp abdominal pain and nausea. In a lawsuit filed against the NHR in 2024, the man alleged a hospital staff member told him they “don’t treat hangovers.” The man then took a bus to Winnipeg to seek treatment, where he was found to have acute appendicitis and needed emergency surgery, according to the suit. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

In 2022, the NHR, then led by Bryant, apologized for anti-Indigenous racism in northern health care and announced the creation of a partnership to help end racism in health care, but a year later, the chief executive officer of Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin said the partnership had seen little progress.

The NHR operates 14 health centres in the north, including hospitals in Flin Flon, The Pas and Thompson. It also works with several provincial and federally operated health centres in the north.