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Mike Murphy

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This week I'd like to talk about the war on wait times and how as Minister of Health I am going to win it.

A big part of the strategy is going to involve the advice I receive from Dr. Wendy Thomson, who I am happy to announce has been retained by the Department of Health to share her expertise with us.

Following a distinguished career in public services in the UK, Dr. Wendy Thomson joined McGill University as director of the school of social work.

She has served as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief adviser on public service reform and led the Office of Public Service Reform in the Cabinet Office, for which she received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

She teaches social policy and public service management and is active internationally advising governments in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Dr. Thomson was one of the keynote speakers at the Health Summit held in Saint John last October.

This will be a three-pronged campaign against lengthy waits for treatment in the province's health-care system.

Given the amount of change in the health care system, the need exists to develop a common purpose and effective working relationships amongst the key institutional players (two Regional Health Authorities, the New Brunswick Health Council, non-clinical shared services agency and the Department of Health).

Dr. Thomson has already had one-to-one meetings with the CEOs and Chairs of the two RHAs, the non-clinical shared services agency, the NB Health Council and key officials with the Department of Health.

Later this month, she will facilitate a meeting of these same people for the purpose of giving more shape to the changing health care system, and defining respective roles and responsibilities of the four core institutions plus the Department of Health.

In the meetings, she will also work on developing a sense of shared purpose and strategy, setting the short term priorities, and agreeing to an approach to managing change.

This project also involves taking stock of all existing diagnostic imaging equipment in our health system, its rate of usage and wait lists and wait times for diagnostic imaging services. We will also gather benchmarking data from other comparable health systems.

We will then design a policy framework for procuring and replacing equipment.

This could include introducing competition and a mixed supply of publicly and privately owned DI equipment.

The readiness of the electronic patient record will be important in determining the configuration of Diagnostic Imagining services.

As stated in the Provincial Health Plan, a pilot project is underway to establish primary health care teams in community-based physician practices.

This will enhance collaborative service delivery and enable physicians to provide multidisciplinary support to their patients.

The purpose of the pilot project is to develop a model of care that supports the delivery of team-based services to deal with all aspects of an individual's health needs.

Currently, planning for this pilot project involves the examination of a potential pilot site, a review of various existing models (i.e., the Chinook model) and discussion within the Primary Care Advisory Committee.

As part of this project in early September, Dr. Rob Wedel from the Chinook Primary Care Network in Alberta will be sharing his experiences with participants from New Brunswick.

The objective of this session with Dr. Wedel will be to obtain input into the development of the NB pilot project.

Health care in New Brunswick is going through significant changes with the end result being a revitalized system in which to provide state of the art, quality health care to each and every New Brunswicker.

The delivery of this primary health care and access to it will be a cornerstone as we move toward a self-sufficient New Brunswick.

* 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.