Edmonton Roundtable Report

In Edmonton, the Minister of State met approximately 32 Alberta public health stakeholders.

They advised the Minister to consider the following factors in building a Public Health Agency of Canada.

1. Regarding a Mandate for a Public Health Agency

• The Agency mandate needs to be broader than health care, should include:
  • Environmental health;
  • The social determinants of health, especially in deciding how to influence human behaviour; and,
  • Translating national best practices into practice standards.
• The Agency should be responsible for addressing huge gaps in how public health is administered across the country:
  • Gaps are especially noticeable in places like the Northwest Territories versus the Canadian average across other regions of the country.
• The Agency needs to take a special focus on health status of children and families;
• The Agency mandate with regard to First Nations and Inuit needs to be the subject discussions between Minister, Chiefs and Band Medical Directors; and,
• The Agency must report to Canadians on an annual basis.

2. Regarding Operational Strategies for a Public Health Agency

An Agency should consider:

• The Agency needs to build on existing public health infrastructure in the regions and municipalities. One example of partnership with local communities includes:
  • The Edmonton Public School Board partnership with Health Canada and the (Edmonton) Capital Health Authority to make having nurses available to inner city schools two days a week.
• The Agency needs to create a mechanism that will prevent the erosion of the local elements of the public health system, as Alberta municipalities experienced during health regionalization;
• But appropriate response to a crisis such as SARS needs adequate capacity at the local level;
• Early intervention for children at risk is good sound public health policy; and,
• Aboriginal Canadians need to be consulted on strategies regarding their public health issues.

3. Investments

Participants urged an Agency to focus on the following priority investments:
Human Resource Capacity:

• The Federal government needs to focus on training to all health professionals in public health measures; and,
• "Surge capacity" for health emergencies is essentially non-existent:
  • Need to ensure that resources at the local level are adequately trained to respond to crisis situations like SARS. SWAT teams sent out from a national location will not work.

Information Systems:

• The Agency needs to develop a national surveillance system for tracking chronic diseases;
• Collection of information and data must be standardized nationally and systems must be compatible, nationally; and,
• The Agency needs to ensure the maintenance of the infrastructure to monitor and respond to emerging infectious diseases.

Other:

• The Federal government needs to ensure equal access to immunization across Canada;
• Language barriers are costly and funding for minority language training for health professionals is essential; and,
• The Federal government is encouraged to transfer enveloped funding for public health directly to the grassroots level.

4. Public Health Issues

Participants also raised concerns about specific public health issues:

• Mental health - especially children's mental health - cannot be left out of the Agency's mandate;
• Current laboratory surveillance information systems are not being used well, possibly because they are not user friendly;
• Federal funding greatly enhanced the ability of the province to conduct surveillance of HIV and STDs; and,
• For aboriginal Canadians, the distinction between on- or off-reserve status creates inappropriate disparities in health and health care. This needs to be addressed.

5. Chief Public Health Officer

• Chief Public Health Officer needs to be the conduit and champion for Canadians and between all levels of government on public health.