July 11, 2001 Health Care Committee 143
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Standing Committee on Health Care Hansard Verbatim Report No. 8 – July 11, 2001 Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan Twenty-fourth Legislature STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH CARE 2001 Judy Junor, Chair Saskatoon Eastview Hon. Jim Melenchuk, Vice-Chair Saskatoon Northwest Brenda Bakken Weyburn-Big Muddy Hon. Buckley Belanger Athabasca Bill Boyd Kindersley Rod Gantefoer Melfort-Tisdale Warren McCall Regina Elphinstone Andrew Thomson Regina South Published under the authority of The Honourable P. Myron Kowalsky, Speaker STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH CARE 141 July 11, 2001 The committee met at 10:03. Dr. Dennis Kendel has been very supportive to the Saskatoon Health Oasis. The Chair: — Good morning. This is the Standing Committee on Health Care. It’s a committee of the Legislative Assembly. And the motive for the Saskatoon Health Oasis is not to Our first order of business is to receive and report on responses reinvent the wheel but to create a different healing paradigm to the Fyke Commission. and a different healing modality, and to encompass . to work together instead of work separate from. I’m Judy Junor, the Chair of the committee. Dr. Melenchuk is the Vice-Chair, Andrew Thomson, Warren McCall, Buckley And I’ve . basically what I’ve done is . Of course we all Belanger, Brenda Bakken, and Rod Gantefoer are members of know what health is and we know what disease is and I feel the committee. personally that the medical system is not efficient by itself. I really feel that together . we can work together and help to It’s an all-party committee and reports its findings of what we make the system run more efficiently. heard to the Legislative Assembly by the end of August. The World Health Organization says that 85 per cent of We’ve given presenters half an hour, and that includes their illnesses that kill us are preventable. And so in working with presentation as well as, hopefully, some question period for the prevention and . prevention, as I see in the Fyke report, is committee members to ask. explained differently than we believe in complimentary therapies. And so prevention is basically working with people So if you want to introduce yourself, where you’re from and that are already going through the medical system and assisting who you represent, and then you can begin your presentation. them in healing themselves. Ms. Lavallie: — Hi. I’m Flo Lavallie. I’m a clinical herbalist. I Medicine is focused on illness. And we focus on optimum practice out of Saskatoon and I’m here to present on . I wear health and also make people aware of how they can help two hats in the community. I’m on the board of directors of themselves. Tamara’s House and on the board of directors and a founder of the Saskatoon Health Oasis. Our mission statement is the — and it’s been included in the handout — the Saskatoon Health Oasis is a collaborative health And I really thank you for the opportunity of being here. It’s centre offering holistic strategies for healing. And again, please really an honour to be here and to respond to the Fyke report. I find our perspectives in the handout. perused it very, very orally, and I also have marked some questions, if I have, at the very end and some observations of We hope to be partners in healing instead of working separately the report. Very well put together. from each other. Families and communities play a major role in the maintenance and enhancement of their health. I’d like to begin by saying that the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every And the principles are personal responsibility, accessibility, difficulty. And I really see this is the reasoning for the Fyke equity and equality, geographic availability, illness and health, report or we wouldn’t be here today. fostering change. And I have put this report together very briefly. I didn’t have The health system must enable all citizens to live a healthy life much time to put it together and, because of human frailty, I in healthy surroundings. Health services must be reasonable and may have not things in order. available in all areas of the province. There must be an equal emphasis on health promotion and prevention of disease and But in any case, this presentation, I have a package that I’ve put accidents. We must acknowledge and maximize opportunity for together with a letter of support from the College of Physicians useful and timely changes in the health care system. and Surgeons. Myself and a colleague of Dr. Melenchuk’s actually, Dr. Joe Schnurr in Saskatoon, are going to set up a And then again I’ve listed the letters of support that we’ve holistic facility in Saskatoon, the first of its kind in received as we’ve been functioning for the last five years. Saskatchewan, introducing complementary therapies and the western, traditional, medical model. Hon. Allan Rock, Dr. Dennis Kendel, Pat Lorjé, Hon. Judy Junor, the Red Cross, United Way. And Pat Atkinson, we met And in 1986, I met with Eric Cline when he was minister of with Pat, and she’s nominated Drew Johnston from the health Health and this is when the Saskatoon Health Oasis was caucus of provincial government to be our liaison person. And founded. And as a result of that we’ve met with a numerous I’ve communicated with Drew and given him all the amount of political people in the community, as well as MLAs information package that you have today. (Member of the Legislative Assembly) and MPs (Member of Parliament), and we’ve received very good response from the In closing I would like to draw attention to the full-service community, as well as the MLAs and MPs. hospital cover page where the . and this is basically the handout that I’ve given in Hawaii where they work with The College of Physicians and Surgeons had asked me and Dr. hospitals and they have holistic practitioners and medical Joe Schnurr to speak to the Council of the College of Physicians doctors work together hand in hand in order to make that and Surgeons in March and it was very well received as well. medical system more efficient. 142 Health Care Committee July 11, 2001 The Saskatoon Health Oasis has received seed funding from the And I really find this very disrespectful. I really feel that we Saskatoon District Health Board in order to assist this facility to basically are complementary therapists. We are people that take place. Dr. Joe Schnurr and myself are at the business plan work very hard at presenting a paper in terms of health care, stages of the Saskatoon Health Oasis. and we were not recognized anywhere. I believe that the year 2001 is the opportunity to realize Tommy But I also do see some good things that have happened here Douglas’s dream, phase 2 of health care. where I really believe that . on page 19 it says: “Less need for services through prevention, early intervention and disease In discussion with Pat Atkinson as to how this could happen, management.” And I think that’s a very positive statement. and my recommendation for this is to work this in terms of coverage, which is a concern of a lot of people in this province, Page 25, interdisciplinary teamwork. And again, are we how these processes can be covered or how these treatments can included in the interdisciplinary teamwork because we are part be covered, and I made a recommendation to Pat Atkinson of a team. I refer to physicians all the time. I have physicians when we met, is that partial coverage to the client or to the that work with me. The day before yesterday a physician called patient. me and was really concerned about a patient taking an herbal medicine and having a reaction. And she didn’t know anything And the patient . say, for instance, six treatments be paid for about that reaction and so she called me. and then any additional treatments can be paid for from the person’s pocket. And that was a way that I thought was fair to The College of Pharmacy calls me at the university when they everybody. And also the person could take responsibility have a client that can’t take traditional western medicine and instead of shoving that responsibility all onto the government. seeing if there’s an option for them. And so people feel equal partnership in their healing. And so I’m basically working . I’ve been working for the last Inclusion in relationship I think is what I’m asking for here 20 years to try and get holistic medicine recognized in this today, and also an opportunity to be heard. province. And so I really feel that we took . you know, we suited up and showed up and made a presentation to this The need for research. Dr. Joe Schnurr and myself are going to committee and, you know, we weren’t recognized. look at doing some research, and funding dollars should be really allocated . are always allocated for our medical western So the system needs to be . I really agree with page 81. It diseases, which are buzz words of the ’90s. Every generation says the system needs to be rethought — an inversion of the seems to come up with a new disease. And so I really feel that pyramid that focuses on everyday, comprehensive services. And the need for research in complementary therapies and their I really think that was a profound statement.