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speakup

This week I want to discuss another aspect of the governance reforms the government has recently announced in health care. While two weeks ago I filled this space talking about the Health Council, I now want to turn your attention to the non-clinical shared services agency.

During one of many conversations at Tim Hortons I was given a tip by a constituent that one of the local hospitals was knocking down walls to make room for office space. When I looked into this further, not only was the constituent right-on but I also learned it was not a unique event. Indeed many hospitals in New Brunswick were beginning to look more and more like office buildings than health care providers, literally replacing hospital beds with desks.

Also, as I travelled the province visiting health authorities who presented me with long and short term plans that often contained renovations for office space or renovations for expansion because so much of the hospital was already taken up by offices. This had to stop. The non-clinical shared services agency is how we are going to stop this. To make sure as much of the health budget as possible is being directed toward clinical care, this agency will assume responsibility for some of the administrative duties currently done in the hospitals.

In the first year, the agency will take over materials management and all information technology services. The IT portion is especially relevant as the province moves to become a leader in E-Health. In the second year, the agency will take over finance and payroll duties, as well as, telecommunications, biomedical engineering, and energy retrofitting. The third year will likely see the agency take over laundry.

Even though this all sounds very good, I am hearing some legitimate questions from New Brunswickers. Does this mean there won't be any offices at all in the hospitals? No. There will always be a need for some administrative functions and management of the facilities.

Will there be job losses? There are no plans to reduce jobs as a result of transferring work and related jobs to the new agency. Efficiency will be managed through attrition, retraining and redeployment strategies within the health sector. Existing collective agreements with our health care unions will be respected. This isn't about cutting jobs or picking fights. What will happen to the purchasing of local goods and services when the agency becomes involved? Since these tend to be non-medical in nature, we do not foresee this practice changing.

Is this the privatization boogey-man that some people keep referring to? Of course not! The agency is a public body. People transferred to this agency are being transferred to a public organization. There are no plans to acquire these non-clinical services through contracts with the private sector.

I also want to take this opportunity to introduce readers to the two people chosen to head up the agency. The chair of the board of directors is Roxanne Fairweather. The agency's CEO is Gordon Gilman.

Much like the Health Council I discussed two weeks ago, the non-clinical shared services agency gives New Brunswickers the modern tools required for our modern age.

* Mike Murphy is the Provincial Health Minister and MLA for Moncton-North. His column appears bi-weekly in Moncton This Week. If you would like to reach him, stop by his office on Mountain Road or phone 869-6115.