by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 12/97) - Yellowknife health-care workers have been reminded once again of the old adage about ounces of preventions and pounds of cure.

Not everyone at a forum Wednesday night on the subject is convinced the $500,000 Med-Emerge report tells them anything they don't already know, however.

Following brief presentations on medical service changes proposed for Yellowknife -- and the rest of the NWT -- in the report, the floor was opened to questions.

What the report's GNWT presenters heard was an attack.

Long-time care-giver, Lou Richard, one of 25 residents at the forum, took exception to strategic plan produced by Med-Emerge, an Ontario consulting firm, and its focus on prevention.

"What I would like to see in a strategic effort by the department is that there is some indication of how they're going to move. We've been talking and talking about this for years. Certainly in my lifetime nothing has shifted," said Richard.

"We can all get up, talk and sound wonderful, but if we don't bring it down to a reality, then people get cynical. I hope there will be something there that will start to say shift."

In order to make a shift, Cleaver said the hospital and boards will likely have to look at other areas such as administration and medical travel and find dollars for prevention.

"That's obviously the first place you look when you're trying to free up dollars and to shift them from your right pocket to your left pocket, lower priorities to higher priorities," said Cleaver.

Cleaver said Stanton is already moving towards prevention with the introduction of two audiologists that travel around Yellowknife and the communities, providing hearing screening.

"It has to be done on a case-by-base basis as well as at the territorial level," said Cleaver.

Mandrusiak added to Cleaver's comments, saying that the Yellowknife health and social services board, which is now a legal entity, has more flexibility when creating its own strategic plans and prioritizing.

If Yellowknife Health and Social Services wants to move towards prevention, it can do so by manipulating its own budget without departmental interference, she said.

Dr. Ross Wheeler, a representative from the territorial treatment centre, says he is worried about the possible loss of services while the process of developing a strategic plan continues.

"What I'm really concerned about is between the toing and the froing -- we're going to throw the baby out with the bath water and things are going to go down the toilet cause we're going to lose services," said Wheeler, "like the alcohol and drug program."

The panel at Wednesday's meeting will now draw up an overview of the public consultation by next week and present it to the department.

A longer, more thorough report outlining a medical services strategic plan will be completed by mid-February. Comments are still welcome on the Med-Emerge document.