Prairie North Health Region hosted its final meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 29 in the Greedharry Conference Room at Saskatchewan Hospital, the same room in which Prairie North hosted its first.
Chair Bonnie O’Grady said the conference room also hosted the Prairie North board in 2002, when the previous health districts became regions. On Dec. 4, the regions became a single authority.
The PNHR meeting’s agenda featured few items. Some new health care staff were appointed, and the appointments of some staff were continued, in Meadow Lake, Turtleford, and Lloydminster. A heliport to be built in Lloydminster was also approved.
The new health authority board of directors was appointed in June 2017. There are 10 members, with Dr. Janet Tootoosis acting as the representative of North Battleford and area. Scott Livingstone was named as the health authority’s CEO in August. In addition to the CEO, the senior leadership team will consist of a chief medical officer, eight vice-presidents and four physician leaders who will work with the vice-presidents.
The Prairie North board featured health administrators, along with community members.
A few PNHR board members, including chair Bonnie O’Grady, thanked Prairie North CEO David Fan for his work.
Fan said he will work with the new health authority in a half-time transition role for three months, and will continue work that has already begun regarding recruitment, the new Saskatchewan Hospital, and fundraising. Fan was involved in recruiting health specialists for the region. Board member Ben Christensen raised the concern that specialists might be more likely to go to urban centres under a single health authority.
Some Prairie North staff will help the transition, while other board members said they’d retire after Prairie North ends.
“My pitch to the provincial authority is that we have a good team going here, and it took a long time to build that team,” Fan said. “Everybody understands what they all have to do and everybody is moving in the same direction. And that’s not easily done, it’s not done overnight.
“In the foreseeable future, the most expedient thing to do would be to keep the team locally and keep the eyes on the ball, and keep going, and adjust all the time. Don’t come in here and upset everything, that wouldn’t be good.”
The province previously had 12 health regions. The process to amalgamate the health regions began in August 2016, although documents theorizing the centralization of health regions date back at least to 2009. An advisory panel consisting of Brenda Abrametz, Tyler Bragg, and Dr. Dennis A. Kendel began collecting information and data last summer, and wrote a report that was disseminated to the public on Jan. 4, 2017.
According to Optimizing and Integrating Patient-Centered Care: Saskatchewan Advisory Panel on Health System Structure Report, reasons for amalgamating include saving expenses (projections of which, according to officials, are to be approximately $10-20 million annually by 2018-19), and improving team-based care, which can be impeded by different health regions. A single authority would also allow for consolidating services including payroll, IT, human resources, and scheduling and procurement.
Criticisms raised against the single health authority include prioritizing urban centres over rural communities, partisan board appointees, and that the changes could signal more privatization, which some union leaders construe as leading to more provincial expenditure decreases.
Alberta and Prince Edward Island each have a single health governance organization.
According to Minister of Health Jim Reiter’s website, “the focus [of the health authority] is streamlining governance and management across the province with frontline employees carrying out their day-to-day patient care responsibilities as usual.
”While there will be some changes to senior administration, maintaining local connections and preserving strong community relationships will be a priority moving forward.
“Management and support services will continue to be located across the province, and local health system contacts and representatives will still be available to community partners.”
Reiter’s website also states that the single health authority will reduce senior administrative staff positions, compared to 12 regions, by 86 per cent, and reduce senior administrative staff salaries by approximately $9 million annually.
The News-Optimist will continue looking into the health authority, specifically how the amalgamation will affect health care in rural communities.
