September 28, 2012
Provincial and Territorial Health and Wellness Ministers Pursue Innovation
Provincial and Territorial health and wellness ministers are forging ahead on innovation to enhance the health of Canadians.
Provincial and Territorial Ministers were joined briefly by telephone by Premiers Brad Wall and Robert Ghiz, the Co-Chairs of Health Care Innovation Working Group, to discuss how to implement the recommendations of the report, From Innovation to Action.
They also discussed the ambitious new agenda of the working group in the areas of Clinical Practice Guidelines, Appropriateness of Care, Team-Based Models, achieving further savings for brand name and generic drugs and continuous improvements through LEAN management principles.
“Our focus is to improve patient care by collaborating across jurisdictions so that the best ideas are easier to implement in another province or territory and that all Canadians are getting the best value for our investments in health care. We want to share innovation not just talk about it,” said Health and Wellness Minister David Wilson who chaired the meeting. “I’m impressed with the progress made and this was very much a working meeting.”
Promotion of healthy life styles and the prevention of disease, disability and injury are important aspects of the sustainability of health systems. Ministers discussed recent progress and opportunities for further collaboration in support of healthy living, such as tobacco reduction, access to healthy food, nutrition information and physical activity. In particular, they agreed to encourage the federal government to expand the Nutrition North Canada program to ensure Canadians living in northern and remote communities can benefit from improved access to healthy foods.
To drive health care transformation, P/T Ministers discussed their commitment to collaborate further on quality, compassion, care and sustainability of long term care for seniors.
Further, PT Ministers unanimously agreed to ask Health Canada to delay consideration of the approval of the generic form of Oxycontin pending further research.
Ministers discussed how the shift in the federal government’s approach on health issues is impacting Canadians. Ministers would like to discuss with Minister Aglukkaq decisions made by the federal government without consultation.
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Media contacts:
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Jennifer Tulk Director of Communications Department of Health and Community Services 709-729-1377, 699-6524 jennifertulk@gov.nl.ca |
Sherri Aikenhead Director of Communications Department of Health and Wellness Government of Nova Scotia 902-456-6386 Sherri.Aikenhead@gov.ns.ca |
2012 09 28 11:05 a.m.