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Mandate
- The Strengthening PH System Infrastructure Task Group was created with the following mandate:
To build on recommendations from the Naylor Report, as well as other pertinent reports, to address infrastructure gaps where F/P/T collaboration would be of benefit.
Analysis and Recommendations for Following Infrastructure Components:
- Sufficient & Competent Workforce
- Organizational Capacity
- Public Health Network and Expert Groups,
- Public health strategies and goals,
- Agreements and protocols,
- Public health legislation,
- Emergency response and surge capacity,
- Public communications and citizen engagement
- Information and Knowledge Systems
- Information, surveillance and infostructure
- Knowledge development and its translation into practice
- Cross-cutting Issues
- Public health laboratories
- Aboriginal health
- Collaborating centres for public health
- System resources
The Task Group ’s report outlines the many individual elements that comprise system infrastructure. While all require further development, there are some specific elements shown in the slide that were determined to be priorities and which were pursued in more detail in our report. These include elements for each of the three broad infrastructure categories, as well as a series of cross-cutting issues.
It is beyond the scope of this presentation to describe all of the recommendations for these priorities. Instead will highlight areas of recommendations for two areas: the public health workforce, and knowledge development and its translation into practice.
System Resources – Beyond Infrastructure
- Infrastructure is necessary, but insufficient for an effective public health system – strategies and programming
- Naylor estimates that about 2.6% of public sector health expenditures go to public health (about $2 billion/year)
- Estimates of required additional funding:
- UK’s Wanless Report, Costing of Quebec’s Public Health Program, BC’s Standing Committee and BC’s Cancer Society:
- Consistency in recommending a doubling of current expenditures with an increase to 5-6% of health expenditures.
Preceding slides have focused on our estimates of incremental investments in system infrastructure. Infrastructure supports effective programming and services, but does not include the costs of actually delivering those programs, which are much greater.
Doubling of the current investment in public health would provide an opportunity to fully implement the existing knowledge for effective practices and approaches. For example, if Canadian governments were to implement all nine effective program components for tobacco control that were identified by the U.S. CDC, it would cost $450 a year. Current federal spending on tobacco control is about $70M with additional spending by P/Ts. Clearly tobacco is but one risk factor and there are many public health priorities requiring attention.
Doubling funding is not the same as simply doing more of the same. One would expect greater comprehensive and inter-sectoral strategies and programs with better data to inform on progress towards objectives and goals.