The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Here is the third and final part of our interview with NRHA interim CEO Helga Bryant and Executive Director of Communications Corliss Patterson. REMINDER: Does Flin Flon have enough doctors? If not, what would the optimal number be? BRYANT: You know, it's really hard (to say). Somebody asked me that question the other day in another community. The answer really is "It all depends." There are many factors, such as the case mix of a particular physician; certain populations take more time based on multiple medical and care circumstances. Family doctors also have a variety of responsibilities as they cover in Emergency, they see patients on clinical units, they have a clinic practise, they may go to outlying communities or practise in a walk-in (clinic). All of these factors influence the number of patients a physician sees in any given day. The demographics of the community also impact on what a reasonable patient caseload for a physician (is). And we also need to consider that some physicians are family physicians, some are engaged in surgery or anaesthesia or other specialties. This all needs to be considered. The experience level of the physician also impacts on the flow of patients on any given day. And it isn't always about the numbers, it's about how efficient the processes and systems are within their practise as well. There are benchmarks across the country around numbers of population per family physician, and I believe that number is around 2,000 (patients). So when you think of the population of Flin Flon and you look at how many family physicians we have, maybe we do have enough. But it all depends on how complex their caseload is. There are so many factors that to say we have enough or not enough (is difficult). Now that being said, we've asked in our health plan (a funding request to the province) for more (doctors) because the community has told us that they need more, and we need to be planning for physician services from a human resource perspective as well. REMINDER: How many more doctors? BRYANT: We've asked for two in the health plan for Flin Flon. REMINDER: So we are talking about 11 doctors in total as being adequate? BRYANT: That should be adequate, I would think. But again, it depends on what their various specialties are, how complex their caseloads are, are they working full-time or are they starting to slow down their practise? So much depends (on those factors). REMINDER: How long before there will be a permanent CEO for the NRHA? BRYANT: That depends on how long it takes to do the search. The NRHA board has engaged a recruitment firm to conduct a national search, so it will depend on how many candidates there are that fit the desired profile. See 'Search...' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 3 It's the board's decision, the board's process; they are seeking input on the profile from stakeholders. The CEO is the employee of the board; the board has formed a search committee that is leading that process. Finding senior health-care leaders is a challenge at times. REMINDER: A lot of the complaints that have surfaced against the NRHA Ð misdiagnoses, waits Ð are problems in health care across Canada, if not the world. Is there a unique situation in this region or is this just what's going to happen when you have so many moving parts? BRYANT: Well part of it is that. Are we ever going to have an ER that doesn't have a waiting room? I have been involved in planning for several capital projects and have been part of discussions like, "What would it look like if we had an emergency room that didn't need a waiting room because there was capacity to meet all needs?" Are we ever going to have people being able to phone and come right away to any provider? I don't know that, because the demands of the system and the expectations of the public are huge. Even when you look at an emergency room, if there were alternate places to get some of the minor ailments looked at, those people wouldn't have to come to (the ER). Then we could truly immediately look after the really serious ones, and the serious (cases) always get attention first. Because we do prioritize, following the Canadian Triage Assessment Scales. So the wait time does depend to a degree on what the mix of patients is at any given time. So there will always be waits, I expect. That being said, though, we must always look at our processes to make sure that we're doing things in the most efficient, appropriate way. REMINDER: Did you want to add anything? BRYANT: I'm privileged to be able to be in the NOR-MAN region. We are excited about implementing the (review team's) recommendations. We really see this as an opportunity to put a new persona on the organization and we want to engage with the community in improving the delivery of health services. We have an open door and we'd like to meet with people. I don't think there's been a day in the last little bit that we haven't met with someone from the community, from the public. We value these opportunities to hear stories and translate those experiences into changes in our system. And we want to keep on doing that because we want to hear from the public about their experiences witus as well as their needs and expectations. We are committed to implementing the recommendations in a methodical, logical manner and are seeking to partner with our communities in improving the system together. This will take patience, time and a high level of commitment.
