From: Hollett, Grant [mailto:Grant.Hollett@viha.ca]
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 06:00 PM
To: Rankin, Murray (Heenan Blaikie); 'Ron Monk' <rmreservices@gmail.com>
Cc: Power, Victoria A. <Victoria.Power@viha.ca>; Relph, William <William.Relph@viha.ca>; Sullivan, Chris <Chris.Sullivan@viha.ca>; Blackie, Doug G. <Doug.Blackie@viha.ca>; Hiebert, Ron (Dr) <Ron.Hiebert@viha.ca>
Subject: RE: Health clinic funding

Hi Murray,

We have had a number of discussions within VIHA about your issue. You are right in that your specific problem is quite minor in the scheme of the financial scale of the health authority. However I have learned that there are many communities and/or physicians who are also asking for resources to support their community-based health care infrastructure. There appear to be almost as many distinct arrangements regarding community contributions and ownership of primary care health facilities as there are communities. This is a legacy issue that has evolved over many years and has left us with a great degree of inconsistency and no clear policy on which to decide who receives funding and how much. Therein lies the root of your problem as far as I can tell.

We have been working on developing a rural services framework for well over a year in an effort to document the myriad of arrangements and to begin to try to bring some consistency and appropriateness to this patchwork of arrangements. One of the objectives of this work is to determine the appropriate support to these communities for their primary care clinics and the best mechanism for that support.

To cut to the chase, due to the challenges to us of setting a precedent that contributes to the patchwork of arrangements rather than resolving them, we are unable to provide any one time funding at this time as we need to wait for the completion of the rural services framework. One of the areas that we will be working closely with to finalize this framework are the Southern Gulf Islands, and we will be engaging the Gulf Islands Health Advisory Committee, on which I believe Saturna has representation. We believe that there will be some innovative, fair and sustainable ways to support small community clinics that will emerge from this work within the next 1-2 years. In short we are trying to find the right long term solutions.

We would, however, like to discuss with you the use of the space that VIHA staff currently use at your facility as it may be appropriate for VIHA to pay a reasonable amount for our use. This could take the form of a lease or rental agreement.

We would be willing to host a teleconference to discuss the above information if you would like. I also hope that you take some solace in knowing that we are very aware of yours and others situations and want to bring a good long term solution and consistency regarding VIHA’s role and contribution to all of the island communities.

Let me know if you want to chat and I will set up a teleconference for a time that works for all of us. If you prefer to meet in person, we are open to that as well. This will include colleagues of mine from rural services, medical affairs and capital planning.

Cheers

Grant