Health projections worry local u TERRACE —- The head of a lo- cal health care union local is worried about health minisiry projections which indicate fewer hospital beds will be necded, Elaine Pigeau of the Hospital . Employees Union says the docu- ment suggests a continued decline of hospital health care in the . Northwest. The document projects popula- tion. and bed, demand in five-year increments from 1991 to 2011 for local health areas. Terrace’s local health arca takes in Stewart and the Hazeltons, ' “While the projection is for an increased population, the number of beds drops from existing levels in Mills Memorial Hospital here, at.Wrinch Memorial in the ~-Hazeltons and at the hospital in ‘Stewart. .... Those projections are divided into three sections — one for 2.75 "beds per thousand population (the ‘recommendation of the recent royal commission into health cate), one for beds assuming present use and one for beds as- - suming a switch to community- “based health care. The: result once the totals are _added up, says Pigeau, is an over- ‘> alldecline. ~The 2.75 ‘beds per thousand -. projection total is 92, amounting ~ 19°68 beds at Mills assuming - Wrinch keeps its 25 beds and Stewart its 10 beds, she said. ‘Thats one less than we have now — after the cuts of this _ year,” said Pigeau. - ¢ “The number drops to 68 beds -- overall in the three communities — “> at present use and 69 overall with “the switch to more communily care, she added. Local control | coming TERRACE — A provincial as- siciation. is predicting thé" 7 Nhen health care planning-and- authority rests with regiorial’ boards. sya feb cea res Those boards will be made up of representatives of community health care groups, says Herman Crewson, president of the B.C. Health Association. . In town recently for a mecting | of northwest health officials, ‘ Crewson said regional boards will be better able to respond to local needs, He‘ calls them a more efficient and practical way of providing health care with a limited amount of money. _- Tel be able to look long and hard at duplication of services, “fhe - administrative © infrastruc- ture,’? said Crewson. He ‘said “moving health care planning into the regions will be the first step followed by the authority to make spending deci- sions. - Eventually, Crewson continued, ~.. regional. health boards could be * given a set amount of money each year with the power to spend it as it sees fit. Jt could simplify the alloca- . tion process to 18 or 20 regional ~ boards,”? he said, ' “The key to that is breaking up what is now a highly decentral- ized health care bureaucracy “based In Victoria. «But Crewson said that will be difficult to accomplish given a natural resistance to change. The (health) minister is going to: have to have a lot of guts — _ pardon the expression, a lot of ~ gumption,’’ said Crewson of the - prospect of transferring civil ser- ~ -vants out of Victoria. -“'That’s because of the power of civil “service unions and their close connections with the NDP ' government.” "Tet be sa very interesting - dilemma. (Unions) will probably put as many roadblocks into place ©” ag they can to avoid it,” Crewson “commented. oe Although decentralization as “been talked about by. many governments, Crewson ‘believes the NDP government wil! follow “2 through: Le ’ “M*So much of the reference * fhaterial to allow this to happen is flow. in place for it to become “policy,” he said. “And. there’s a general feeling ‘that limited health care budgets n-be spent. more efficiently away from. centralized control ad thority Resid, Elaine Pigeau And even if there are bed declines in Stewart and Hazelton, there won’t be a lot of beds remaining at Mills, Pigeau con- tinued, “That's hardly sufficient for lo- cal needs, let alone for Mills as a regional referral centre,’ she said. Pigeau said the document might make some sense if there was evi- dence of more community ser- vices in ihe northwest as an alternative to hospital care. “So far we haven’t seen any- thing, Is it on, or isn’t it?” she said. The move to communily care nion. was used this year as an explana- tion when northern hospitals had their budgets frozen at 1991 levels. Pigeau said the document was presented to health minister Elizabeth Cull when she visited here in June. “She first denied all knowledge of it and then said it was only a working document anyway,’’ said Pigeau. That leaves Pigeau with the feeling that the health ministry is pursuing a plan without involving northwest hospilals. “Y think this is an cxample of the kind of back room dealing that’s going on, We don’t know the half of it,’ she said. Terrace Regional Health Care Society chief executive officer Michael Leisinger described the document as interesting. "Tt was like holding a cross toa vampire,’ said Leisinger of © Cull’s reaction when it was pre- sented during her visit. 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