Furey accepts the federal health deal and wants it to be reflected in the upcoming provincial budget
Prime Minister Andrew Furey says his government will accept a new 10-year healthcare deal with the federal government – even if it’s not necessarily the deal he wanted.
In a virtual news conference Monday afternoon, Furey said he has instructed the province’s health secretary, Tom Osborne, to begin working out the details of the new deal with the federal government.
“It’s a healthy offering. It’s not one we wanted. When it comes to health care, we would naturally want more and more of a health system. But there’s a real win for Newfoundland and Labrador here,” he said.
Furey met with the other Canadian Prime Ministers on Monday. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said Monday the premiers were “unified” in their decision to accept the deal.
According to details released last week, the $196 billion agreement will include an immediate $27 million cash injection to ease pressure on emergency rooms and pediatric care in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Newfoundland and Labrador will also see about $210 million a year over the next five years from a five percent increase in Canada’s health transfers. The province will get $749 million to spend on “shared priorities” with the federal government.
“I believe that both parties are keen to agree on the common priorities to develop an agreement beyond the framework and I am confident that this can happen in a short time,” Furey said.
These shared priorities include:
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Expanding access to family health services, including in rural and remote areas.
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Support health workers and reduce backlogs.
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Improving access to quality mental health and drug use services.
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Modernization of the health system with standardized health data and digital tools.
Furey said funding will be distributed based on other factors in addition to population size. He said the formula has been skewed towards larger provinces on a per capita basis and fails to recognize the complexities of geography, demographics and economies of scale for a province like Newfoundland and Labrador.
Furey said he hopes negotiations move quickly.
“I’m confident I can do that in a substantial way so that it’s reflected in this year’s budget,” Furey said.
share data
There are some caveats — the provincial government must share statistics on health system performance with the federal government.
This data includes the size of surgery backlogs, wait times for community mental health services, and the number of residents without a primary care physician.
But Furey says individual health data will not be shared.
“I can certainly understand that people are interested — and they should be — in sharing personal health information, and that’s not the intention or spirit of data sharing,” he said.
Furey said the statistics are based on aggregated, anonymized data rather than personal health information.
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