The time for leadership is now

Health Accord co-chair urges politics be left out of health decisions

As the work of the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Accord finalizes recommendations for significant changes to health-care delivery in this province, one of the co-chairs has issued a direct challenge to municipal leaders.

Recently speaking to delegates at the Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Symposium in Gander, Sister Elizabeth Davis spelled out what she sees as the role town councillors will play in this revisioning effort.

“If you are not part of this, this vision cannot be realized

... You have to see what we’re talking about when we say you have more influence on health in your communities than any doctor or hospital does ... You have to get your head around the fact that you have to make sure that your communities are age friendly, and they’re not.”

Health Accord NL will submit two further documents soon. The Implementation Blueprint will outline possible steps to be taken in response to the 57 Calls to Action in the report. An online compilation of the extensive body of evidence which was used will complete the report.

“The heart of the matter here is the person and the family,” the accord co-chair added.

Gander town Coun. Gina Brown urged the Health Accord Committee to stand firm in the application of objective data to drive decision making.

“When it comes to Central Newfoundland, I think we’re in a weird position in terms of what the health-care proposals suggest for what’s going to be happening here,” she said at the session. “I absolutely agree there has to be change, and I am encouraged by the fact that it’s been suggested that the changes in health-care delivery will be based on objective data that will encourage efficiency and effectiveness of health-care delivery in this area.”

Brown added, “I encourage the board to suggest implementation based on continuing objective data … I think it isn’t fair that there’s an expectation that communities essentially fight it out for health-care delivery.”

The two major Central Newfoundland population centres, Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander, have been pitted against each other in battles over which elements of healthcare delivery for the region are housed in which Regional Health Centre.

“I see you had mentioned doctor turnover as a suggestion as to whether a program might be sustainable in a particular area,” Brown added. “When you look at that particular statistic, that is not objective data. That is indicative of the environment in which the community is in whether or not there’s support systems in place to support doctors, or even the doctors that have been recruited to that area.”

She also noted Central Newfoundland has the highest level of chronic disease.

“What I haven’t seen is a plan to deal with rehabilitative services. The predominant rehab centre is located in St. John’s. I would really like to see the plan where we look at servicing the population that’s really at the most need for rehabilitation services.”

“We’re not recommending cuts to anything,” added cochair Dr. Patrick Parfrey.

“What we’re recommending is that we have to plan for the next couple years … One of the difficulties in Central Newfoundland is you need to look at how you locate services, and the difficulty is that both hospitals are at 100 per cent occupancy …,” he said.

Davis pointed out the report suggests there should be three centres of aging and there is “a very strong recommendation for one in Central and one in western doing all these things you’re talking about as essential to the population as we get older.”

“What we are asking for then is we need a major culture change. We have for a very long time believed that improving health depended on doctors and hospitals. We’re calling for a major shift in thinking .... ,” added Davis.

The Health Accord NL Report: Our province. Our health. Our future. A 10-Year Health Transformation. was released on Feb. 17. It’s built on significant engagement with the people of the province, use of existing evidence and the focused work of six strategy committees and four working groups led by a broadly representative task force, according to its website, https://healthaccordnl.ca/.