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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Problems in the health-care system need better resource management and not necessarily more money, says Dr. Anna Reid, a NWT physician and the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association.

She is playing host to about 300 physicians from across Canada who are in Yellowknife from Aug. 12 to 15 for the 145th annual conference of the Canadian Medical Association,

Reid, who has worked as an emergency physician at Stanton Territorial Hospital since 2008, said the solutions to health-care issues all over Canada do not necessarily require more money, but smarter spending.

Solutions, she said, should focus on streamlining systems, target the source of health-care issues and increase accountability for the spending of health-care dollars.

"You can throw more money at the problems but the smarter thing to do is figure out why there is a problem," she said. "The (Canadian Medical Association) is going to be doing a lot of work over the upcoming year, and it's going to be the focus of my year. It's also the focus of the conference. It's called the 'social determinants of health,' or 'health equity.' What we're talking about here is fairness. It's to distribute our resources in terms of wellness around the country."

The determinants to be discussed at the conference include such things as affordable healthy food, safe and adequate housing, nutrition education, and child education, among others.

"The number one key in terms of affecting people's health, and this is across the world, this is education," said Reid. "If people are not educated they are going to have worse health outcomes and that's in every country in the world ... and that starts right when they're born.

"If kids don't get that early start, you can already predict usually by the time they hit kindergarten how they're going to do for the rest of school and the rest of life.

"These things sound like they're outside of the medical sphere, but I think we're coming to a point where we realize we can keep dumping more money into the health care, or disease care, if you like, system, but unless we look at the wellness part and promote wellness and advocate for things that effect that, it's going to be a losing game."

Advocacy is not always easy for those on the front lines.

Reid said "gag orders" on physicians across the country, similar to those on other government-employed workers, often make it nearly impossible for physicians to speak publicly on something they see going wrong.

"It has been a problem in many health authorities and it's really limited physicians' ability to try to make change if they can't do it from within," she said. "In other ways, for example through the CMA or our provincial medical associations, we're not hired by anyone. We're completely independent. For us, we can advocate as strong as we want to on basically any issue and we do."

While Reid's term as president will take her away from clinical work for the year, she said she is looking forward to the opportunity to really impact health-care reform in Canada.

"When you're in a job for a long time you get an idea of what the problems are and you also get an idea of what some of the solutions might be," she said. "So at some point, I can probably do more good where I am right now than I can on an individual level."

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