Kevin Wilson & Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 23/01) - Now that health boards around the territory have had a chance to review the recent Cuff report on health care, reaction is trickling in and opinions are mixed.

IRHSS chair Nellie Cournoyea says the report doesn't address the shortage of health care professionals.

The Spruce Grove, Alta.-based consulting firm was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Services last February and paid $375,000 for the report.

Cuff recommends that decision-making authority for the delivery of health care be centralized and that a "system-wide review, focusing on...governance structures, accountability, service delivery and funding" be undertaken.

The Inuvik Regional Health and Social Services Board says the Cuff Report does little to address an acute shortage of health care professionals, particularly nurses, in the Northwest Territories.

The board issued an interim response to the Cuff Report two weeks ago. In it, board chair Nellie Cournoyea called on Health Minister Jane Groenewegen to, "press her provincial and territorial counterparts to give the critical shortage of health care professionals the level of urgency and support it requires."

"The number one issue is the lack of nurses and professional workers in the communities...there's a critical shortage in the Delta," Cournoyea said.

Ray Scott, chief executive officer of the IRHSSB, says the board regularly operates with about 50 per cent of the long-term nursing staff it needs. The board tries to make up the shortfall with short-term staff, but there never seems to be enough.

Scott said that, "over the summer, there's been at least two communities (in the Beaufort Delta) that have only had emergency nursing services," said Scott.

Fort McPherson is currently without a community nurse, as is Aklavik and Deline.

He added that the shortage of community nurses, "really affects our public health programs."

In the short term, Scott would like to see the federal government loosen immigration restrictions to allow trained foreign health care professionals to practice here. He'd also like to see the GNWT address the high cost of living in remote communities and the shortage of housing.

Scott said the board will release a more detailed response to the Cuff Report in "about two or three weeks."

Hay River says change is needed

Rod Tordoff, chair of the Hay River Health and Social Services Board, says he hopes politics won't dominate decisions about how to best deliver health and social services programs.

"Political concerns shouldn't enter into the decisions about health care and people forget that sometimes," Tordoff said. "What I would like to see is the best use of the resources and the way things were going before it was not the best use of resources. There was a lot of wasted money.

"The people that are receiving the services should be the most important factor on your mind, not whether it's politically correct or who are we going to offend."

Tordoff says the Cuff Report "hit the nail right on the head in a lot of cases."

The Hay River board will be drafting their official position this week to submit to the ministry.