PROVINCE HAS NO DEADLINE FOR CRACK PIPE REVIEW

Critics Want Health Professionals To Take Over Health Boards

There is no date for the completion of a review that could strip
Ottawa City Council of its duties as a board of health, an Ontario
Ministry of Health spokesman said yesterday.

The ministry began the review in response to a provincial task force
report tabled in May of last year, which made recommendations on the
public health system.

Currently, municipal councils across the province are responsible for
public health. In many jurisdictions, the boards are made up of
councillors and health professionals.

But in others -- Ottawa included -- municipal councils are the boards.

Key task force recommendations are that some councillors should sit
on boards of health, but that the boards should be made autonomous
and at least half the members should be health professionals.

Ministry spokesman David Jensen said the review of the report might,
or might not, result in changes to the current system, but that all
recommendations are still on the table.

The issue of who should make decisions on public health programs has
become a hot one after city council killed the municipality's crack
kit program last week.

Officials at health and social support agencies -- who work with the
city's homeless and addicted and dispense the kits -- called
council's move short-sighted, irresponsible and reckless.

They feel the program, which was unpopular with many voters, was
killed for political reasons, and the "irrational" move shows council
can no longer be trusted to act in the city's best interests.

They are calling for the province to immediately strip council of its
duties and set up an autonomous board, largely made up of health professionals.

This is exactly what the task force concluded was best, too.

"A board with a primary focus on public health ensures that
appropriate attention is paid to its mandate," the task force report said.

"The very nature of the prevention work of public health often means
that outcomes are long-term or invisible, except during a crisis.

"Public health can be easily overlooked or marginalized, possibly
resulting in the erosion of services. A board focused solely on
public health will ensure this does not happen."

Michelle Ball, education and health promotion co-ordinator at the
Ottawa Aids Committee, dispenses crack pipes and is leading a charge
to keep the program running.

She said politics needs to be taken out of the health care
decision-making process.

"I just don't think politicians can be health care providers," she said.

"They have no health care experience. Many are businessmen and women,
and they are making critical health care decisions like this while
trying to maintain the support of voters. It just doesn't work. It's
bound to backfire, and it did in this case."

Meanwhile, one man has started a fundraising campaign to keep the
program -- and drug addicts -- alive.

High school teacher Rob McLeod, 42, has set up a website seeking
donations to keep the program running and committed the first $100
toward this goal.

"I just couldn't believe they would take such a step backwards," Mr.
McLeod said yesterday.

Last week, council voted 15-7 to kill the two-year-old program, which
is designed to help stem the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among drug
users and costs $22,500 per year to run.

Council cancelled the program despite the fact that the city's chief
medical officer of health, Dr. David Salisbury, repeatedly told
elected officials the program is working, saving lives, saving
millions in future medical expenses and is good for public health in Ottawa.

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien was one of the council members pushing to
have the program cancelled. He said he wants to concentrate on
treatment programs.

Mr. McLeod said aside from the human suffering cancelling the program
will cause, Mr. O'Brien's logic doesn't make sense, for several reasons.

"For one, you have to be alive to go to a treatment program," Mr.
McLeod said. "This decision will mean some people are dead before
treatment is an option. Nice move there."

Mr. McLeod said he thinks the move will also result in more pressure
on taxpayers who will end up paying millions in health care costs for
newly infected people.

Then there's the fact that the program brought health care workers in
touch with a segment of the population they usually don't see at all,
Mr. McLeod said. On top of this, he said, the city's own experts and
studies concluded the program should continue.

Mr. McLeod, who also runs a web-hosting business, bought a domain
name and set up http://freecrackkits.org. People can use Paypal to
send money to donations@freecrackkits.org, or they can mail a cheque
payable to Freecrackkits, 6 Sutton Pl., Ottawa, K2E 5G2.

Mr. McLeod says 100 per cent of money collected will be turned over
to the Aids Committee of Ottawa to be used to buy materials for crack
kits and dispense them.