A Conversation on Health With Provincial Health Minister George Abbott
By 250 News
Monday, March 19, 2007 03:59 AM
As the participants got ready to take part in the weekend “Conversation on Health” in Prince George, Health Minister George Abbott was talking about Health with Opinion 250. Here is a transcription of the Q&A:
Opinion250: Mr. Minister, there were some complaints outside saying that the baby boomers who have been paying for all the health services we now enjoy , are going to be short changed as the Government looks for ways to cut back. How do you respond to that?
Abbott: I don’t agree with that, I think those of us who are lucky enough to be baby boomers, as I am, we are in our most productive years now and clearly there are going to be a lot of us, 10 years from now, 20 years, 30 years from now and that is going to pose some challenges to the health care system, but as a generation we have been treated remarkably well. As a generation we have had the best of everything as baby boomers.
I think our health care system can be sustained, I think there’re lots of great ideas around about how we can improve the health care system. I think we can fully expect that we will still continue to enjoy a high quality, widely accessible health care system in 2026, 2030, out when I will be in my late 70’s.
Opinion250: You have had 6 Conversations on Health so far, you’ve met with health care professionals and employees, what kinds of messages are you getting already?
Abbott: Well, lots of very good messages and I understand the session in Prince George was very good in terms of the professionals coming forward with very constructive ideas. I think a lot of what we hear, is around how the health care system needs to be better integrated
There’s a sense of health care being in different kinds of silos. Primary Care in one silo, prevention in another, the emergency rooms another, the acute care stream another, those sorts of things. That’s probably a reasonable observation. I think what we need to do is think about some ideas that kind of pull a lot of that together.
I think the kind of work that is being done by Northern Health in terms of primary care, trying to go out and intercept some of that inevitable demand for chronic disease management.
As a very good example, you have a higher than average incidence of diabetes in the north. Part of that is the much higher diabetes rate among First Nations, but also a part of it might be lifestyle issues, so we need to be thinking about that and that’s why I’m particularly taken by the work that’s being done at UNBC on diabetes, particularly its impact on children and how we can take some steps as a society to try and prevent the incidence of juvenile diabetes, Type II diabetes. That’s all good work and I think its all going to make a difference. So we’re hearing some great ideas about prevention, about primary care, you name, it from health care professionals.
Opinion250: A different subject, but one that is very near and dear to the Northern people’s heart and that is the complete cancer care clinic for the region. When can we expect the official announcement, and when can we expect some steps to be taken towards the actual completion?
Abbott: Well the road map, in terms of the building of stronger cancer care in the north, I think I discussed the last time I was here, and I think that as we move out from now to roughly 2013, 2015, we will see the various pieces being put in place.
A radiology center is the crown jewel in terms of cancer care in the North, but there are a lot of pieces we need to put into place before we do that. We need to build a base on which that can work. Some of that work is being undertaken now at UNBC, some of the prevention work which the report puts a lot of emphasis on, I think some great work is being done on prevention, on primary care, great work being done in the North.
In terms of the official announcement, I think that’s likely something the Premier would be looking at in the months or years ahead and I wouldn’t speculate on that, I don’t know exactly when that might happen, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before an announcement can be made.
Opinion 250: Will there be a release of that report you mentioned, that is the report that was delivered to the Premier last July by Dr. Jago and Mr. Burghardt?
Abbott: Yup, there will be at some point, I don’t want to say exactly when, but there will be a timely and appropriate release of that report. There’s lots of work still being done on it.
Opinion250: It’s a fact that regardless of where we go in health care, the aging population is a huge cost factor facing us, what is the Province doing to prepare for that, the next decade, two decades?
Abbott: You’re absolutely right. We expect that about 12% of the population is currently 65 plus, as we get out to 2026, 2030 it will be about 25% of the population that will be 65 plus. That will have fundamental implications. I think the work that is most important around that is a) prevention, not everybody’s genetic package is going to help them avoid disease, in some cases disease may be inevitable based on our genetic package, but there’s lots of lifestyle choice we can make that have a huge influence on the likelihood of cancer, or the likelihood of heart disease or around the likelihood of Type II Diabetes. Lifestyle plays an enormous role in those things for many of us.
So among the things we are doing as Act Now B.C. is we are putting a lot of emphasis on prevention, trying to influence the way people think about exercise, the way people think about smoke, the way people think about having a healthy diet, having a healthy body weight, all of those things are very important.
The other piece which we are working on and working on very vigorously with the BC Medical Association is around primary care. I have religion big time on primary care. I just think that primary care is going to be the key to us managing that huge demographic wave that is coming at us. I think primary care and prevention are the two keys that can help us better deal with what will inevitably be a great surge in demand on the health care system.
So those are the two big things we want to work on, chronic disease management and prevention. So you’ll see a lot of emphasis on that, in fact the BC Medical Association agreement which was concluded, there’s some elements of it that are still being worked on, but the BC Medical Association is in agreement now that provides way more incentives than we have in the past for primary care for chronic disease counseling, for prevention counseling, all those things, so its structured now to support more of that work being done than ever before.
Opinion250: Has the Conversation on Health become politicized? I see 50 people outside from one political persuasion saying one thing, inside you have another political persuasion saying this is the way we want health care to go. What does George Abbott say?
Abbott: Well George Abbott, when he’s confronted by that important question, quotes Chairman Mao, (‘cause it always delights my colleagues when I quote chairman Mao) and that is “Let a thousand flowers blossom, let a thousand ideas contend”. I mean I really think that what we want to do on the Conversation on Health is engage a whole range of perspectives on health care.
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Posted by: REALIST on March 19 2007 7:25 AM