NWT can be medical role model - top doc
Medical association president says territory is
ideal for health revolution
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 24, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Canada's top doctor is calling on the Northwest Territories to set an example for the rest of the country when it comes to health care.
Dr. Louis Francescutti, president of the Canadian Medical Association, was in Yellowknife recently for the NWT Medical Association's annual meeting.
He said places like the Northwest Territories are ideal for creating a healthy population.
"The potential is great for the Northwest Territories, with a small population, to really focus and become a model for the rest of the country to follow," Francescutti said.
After spending his medical career focusing on preventative medicine, Francescutti doesn't believe the health care system - hospitals, doctors and nurses - are the solution to a healthy population.
"The reality is we know what makes people healthy, and it's not in the health care system."
Francescutti said it's more important people have a job, a place to stay and a reason to get up in the morning when it comes to health.
"There's $220 billion being spent on health
care that could be spent on doing things outside the health care system," Francescutti said.
Although the North has troubles getting medical professionals to stay, and issues providing medicine to remote communities, Francescutti believes the territory should address the root causes of illness first.
"Our role is to get rid of the patient," he said.
Francescutti says there's three main factors to health problems today - smoking, inactivity and poor nutrition - which combined account for 50 per cent of illnesses in Canada.
"If we could change those habits, in theory 50 per cent of disease would disappear completely," Francescutti said.
The leading doctor is optimistic the Northwest Territories is a good starting point for national change.
"If you can figure out how to keep the 40,000 people in the territory happy, then the rest of the country would
follow."
