“At the moment, it’s not patient focused, it’s confusing to them, there’s no way of easily navigating it, there’s a lot of duplication of tests and expenses that don’t need to be incurred, and inefficiencies. I think the foundation has been laid with that (document), and what we as an association need to get done is to try and get the patients involved in describing a system that they would see as a way of going forward, and that’ll vary from province to province to some extent, but there’ll be lots of common features.”
He said a patient-based approach needs to look at how that point of view can create a sustainable, equal-access system, with patients and healthcare providers working together to make it work.
Additionally, Dr. Haggie also hopes during his time on the executive to help point out holes he sees in the system. Where the past necessitated a system needing to serve acute illness, now there is a need for a more community-health oriented system, and Dr. Haggie said the funding is not presently in place for this.
“We’ve got elderly patients sitting in hospitals beds getting acute care they don’t really need at a huge cost, for example,” he said, adding 25 per cent of hospital beds in Gander are occupied by patients who could be cared for better and more cheaply than they are in the hospital.
“Because of that, when you need your hip fixed or your gall bladder done, I can’t get you in bed, because there’s no beds.”
Serving on the executive of the CMA will be demanding time-wise for Dr. Haggie. However, he said James Paton is presently served by a full complement of surgeons, with four full-time surgeons. Over the next two years, he will work part-time, with two other surgeons who travel making themselves available where gaps occur.
“Obviously, some of the work will devolve to some of my colleagues, but they’ve been very understanding, and they encouraged me to go for the job in the first place,” said Dr. Haggie. “I’m looking forward to working on their behalf.”
info@ganderbeacon.ca
.jpg)
.jpg)
