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Fourth health board dissolves Boards' roles and responsibilities need updating, might be restored in future: GNWT
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 26, 2013
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Last month, the fourth health board in the territory dissolved and was replaced with public administrator.
Health and social services authorities in the Beaufort Delta, Hay River, the Deh Cho and the Stanton Territorial Health Authority all have public administrators. Boards of management still exist in the Sahtu, Fort Smith, the Tlicho Community Services Agency and the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority.
Debbie DeLancey, the territory's deputy health minister, said the boards that have been dissolved could be reinstated in the future.
"At this point, all that's happened is legally, the board has been set aside and a public administrator has been appointed who basically serves the same functions that a board would serve," she said.
DeLancey said before boards can be restored, their roles and responsibilities need to be updated and outlined.
"I think it's important to state it's not because boards weren't doing a good job or there weren't good people on the boards," she said. "One thing is our legislation is quite out of date. It's quite vague with respect to what the responsibilities of a board actually are and what the responsibilities of the ministry are, and so it needs some updating. There needs to be some more clarity."
DeLancey said the decision to dissolve the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority board came after concerns arose about the quality of service being delivered to clients and an inability to meet quorum.
"In this case, we certainly had some concerns raised," she said. "We had some concerns that came out of some file reviews that were done, so the two taken together it seemed to make sense and to be timely."
Out of the 10 board positions, only two were filled when the board was disbanded.
DeLancey said an investigation into a delayed medevac to Trout Lake after a fatal boating accident in June was one of the concerns that led to the decision.
"We found there was a delay in the ability of the staff in the community of Trout Lake to contact the health centre in Fort Simpson in order to take it to the next step, so that's one example of concerns about protocol and proper quality assurance to be in place," said DeLancey.
She added health care delivery is changing in the territory with the advent of new technology, such as telehealth and digital imagery.
"The whole face of how we deliver health care programs particularly has changed tremendously in the last 25 years since we set up these boards," she said.
Updating boards' jurisdictional boundaries and increasing the ability to share client information between regions is key, DeLancey said.
"So what we've seen is the need to update the legislation and update the board structure, not to get rid of boards, but to be really clear on where there needs to be local control and where we need to do things on a system-wide basis," she said.
The health department's newest public administrator, Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority's Jim Antoine, said he plans to focus on making health-care delivery more efficient and sharing information with residents.
"I think my main focus is that if somebody gets sick, first of all that they get the best care possible, the quickest way possible," he said. "We need to communicate clearly to everybody in the communities how things work and we'll go from there."
Antoine could begin travelling to communities in the region within the next month to begin health care discussions, said DeLancey.
"I think you would see that starting to happen within the next couple of weeks," she said. "Within a month's time, he wanted to visit
all the communities."
Antoine, who was appointed to the position on July 29, said meeting with residents and community leaders is vital to moving forward.
"One of the first courses of action is I'm going to be going into all of the communities, meeting with all the communities in the Deh Cho, including Fort Simpson," he said. "I'm a firm believer in communicating everything, trying to be open and transparent."
Antoine's role will be comprised of duties formerly performed by the board, including approving budgets and appointing medical staff.
"It's a role that requires me to become familiar with the whole operation," he said.
Antoine, who is a former Northwest Territories premier and the former chief of the Liidlii Kue First Nation, is now one of four public administrators replacing boards across the territory, DeLancey said.
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