The minister made a long announcement yesterday. It could seem like a survey of what was being done to offer Islanders the best health care possible for such a small place.
But lost to many journalists who focused on the details of some cuts and services were 3 big messages. You had to hear the code.
- PEI is at the limits of what we can afford to pay for health care.
- In spite of all that we have spent Islanders are getting less healthy.
- We have to find a new way
So not in the news is the sub text that Doug Currie was offering us all in code: as we get older and we get more sick we will bankrupt the province AND we will not be any less ill. All of this will happen in the next 10 years.
So he implied, we have to rethink the entire idea. It will not be enough to get more efficient - though that is good too.
He put on the table that we have to have a game changer. Only a game changer will head off the impossible burden of the demands of an aging population and our chronic illness epidemic.
And this is why he is going out to all Islanders to have conversations.
This is why there were really not cuts of any size this time. Doug has to do the hard work of working to change how Islanders see themselves and their health.
For to try a game changer, Doug has to get some support from us. If he did this on his own, he would have to fail. If he does nothing, he knows he will fail. This is hs and our only chance. It's not about what party you support. We get this right now, or there is no next time.
Here then is what he has to change - how we see the system and us.
At the moment, most Islanders see their health as being Doug Currie and the system's responsibility. "When I am ill" You fix me. When I am old, you look after me. With so few young and tax payers, this cannot be our future.
Most health professionals are tied into what they do now and will hate any changes. They see their future as needing to get more of the old. They do not want any change in their world. They have a lot of power, because we think that they are gods.
So if I was Doug preparing to cross the Island I would prepare like this:
My objective - To be resolute in sharing with Islanders and Health Professionals that trying to fix us when we are ill with Diabetes etc is off the table. That we will indeed go bust in no more than 10 years if we don't rethink this.
We have to defeat chronic illness.
That we have to find ways of helping us to eat differently and to take charge of our health. No small task!
Telling will not work. I would design a process where people had to work with the numbers and see how they fit as people.
I would design a process that showed hope too. Share Stories of people who have taken charge of their health and pulled back from chronic illness. There are a number of Islanders that have done this - SHOW THAT WHILE HARD THIS IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
I would have to influence the system as well. For most health professionals are tied to fixing you when you are ill and nearly all offer the pill versus a change in lifestyle. Or worse offer advice that will make you more ill. telling will not work here either.
There is a large body of health professionals and scientists out there who know all about what our health professionals should know. Bring them here and have conferences for the professionals. A core of the system has to get this too.
This process has to be peer to peer. Islanders to Islanders. Health Professional with Health pros. We don't hear outsiders.
What the process must not be - A lecture tour or a venting platform where people just complain and want their old ways back.
So in summary, if I was Doug Currie I would design a truly interactive tour that would be based on peers and that would offer scenarios for people and health pros that would enable them to struggle with the issues themselves.
With luck, he may have 25% of Islanders and the Pros onside - that is enough to tip the system.
This is our only chance. If we get this wrong we will go bust and we will lose our sovereignty like many nations are in Europe right now.
