A comprehensive study of health and social services has proposed radical reforms to a system described as hobbled by poor organization, political patronage and duplication.
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 27/01) - Community-based delivery of health care is a failure, according to a report commissioned by the territorial Health Department.
The 222-page study, prepared by Alberta consultant George C. Cuff, recommends the nine health boards in the NWT be eliminated.
In their place a central health and social services authority should be established, the report's action plan advises.
"The sooner the better. We recommend Oct. 1," Cuff said Monday.
A third to a half of department's staff would be transferred to the new agency, which would oversee regional authorities, in Inuvik, Yellowknife and Hay River.
Health Minister Jane Groenewegen said the government intends to table an action plan based on the report's recommendations during the next sitting of the legislative assembly in the fall.
"We will not be undertaking a major consultative process on this," Groenewegen said, citing the more than 300 interviews that were done in researching the report. "I believe an overhaul of the system is long overdue."
Under the Cuff plan, regional authorities would gather input from community service councils in each community.
The community services councils, however, would have no decision-making authority.
Cuff said the proposed system was designed with effective health care and social service delivery as its top priority, rather than community control.
The last government began phasing in health boards as a part of its "community empowerment" initiative in the mid 1990s. It argued that handing over control to communities would result in a more effective and cost-efficient system tailored to the needs of each community.
Cuff's examination of the system concluded the opposite.
He said that in researching the report he discovered instances in which a change in the political leadership of community organizations, such as band or hamlet councils, was quickly followed by a change in the health board membership.
"(The system) shouldn't be beholden to local politics," he said Monday.
Doug Plamping, one of the consultants who worked with Cuff on the report, said delivering health care under the proposed system would cost no more than the current system.
The report, however, recommends spending another $15 million annually on social services outside of Yellowknife.
