By Angela Hill

Sustaining the northern health system

Apr 26, 2011 | 6:43 AM

Northern Health Strategy has one last proposal as their funding comes to an end —that is to get enough health workers trained to sustain the current health system and fill some of the gaps.

“We need about $12 million over five years to train close to 500 people, in part to sustain the system, and begin to grow into the area of need,” said Nap Gardiner, co-ordinator of the Northern Health Strategy, an organization that worked on liaising between northern health service providers.

The five years of funding ends at the end of April, but Gardiner said the strategy will live on though the work they have done and their plans for the future.

The last project involved speaking with communities across Northern Saskatchewan to see what they needed to succeed in training as health care workers.

Among the many in-depth responses was an interest in strengthening community-based education, Gardiner said.

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“We felt that it was not only in the domain of the institutions to answer those questions (of how). The principle and value of incorporating community and family and individual’s in that discussion was as equally important,” he said.

To paint a picture of what training at home should look like, Northern Health Strategy went to communities such as La Ronge, Stony Rapids and Ile-a-la-Crosse. There was also a radio program and an online survey.

The other important parts of what they heard are continued coordination, consistency and continuity to the initiatives, said Gardiner.

“But we cannot drop the ball, as they say, in a sense of continued co-ordination and energy behind the initiative that we feel has significant merit and value.”

Gardiner said the change he has seen in discussions over the past five years it significant.

“This is a big change from many years ago when the priorities were issues. We know the issues, let’s solve them,” he said.

“People want to be part of the solution, they want to participate and they want to give their perspective in terms of how we might develop a better future for them and their children.”

While the strategy is winding down as an organization, the concept lives on through the planning done in these final surveys, said Gardiner.

The northern health authorities and groups such as the Northern Labour Market Committee will continue moving the work forward, he said.

alhill@panow.com