March 20, 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Call for Interest Pilot Projects – Testing Patient Wait Times Guarantees in Prenatal and Diabetes Care in First Nations Communities

This Bulletin is being issued by First Nations regional organizations and First Nations and Inuit Health regional offices in a manner determined appropriate by each respective group

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) of Health Canada are working in collaboration with regional organizations in issuing a Call for Interest to First Nations communities who may be interested and have the capacity to participate as Pilot Sites to test Patient Wait Times Guarantees (PWTG) for prenatal and diabetes care.

Background
Health Minister Tony Clement recently announced pilot projects to test Patient Wait Times Guarantees in 20 First Nations communities: up to 10 focusing on prenatal care and up to 10 on diabetes care. These projects will last approximately two years.

Patient Wait Times Guarantees
Pilot projects will set time frames for the delivery of diabetes and prenatal services in First Nations communities. If those time frames are not met, patients will be offered alternative options for care so they receive the treatment they need as early as possible.

Prenatal time frames:

• Once a pregnancy is confirmed by a health care provider in the community, an initial appointment for a prenatal examination will be scheduled within two weeks
• Appointments for prenatal examinations will then be scheduled every four weeks with a health care provider in the community
• If the health care provider in the community identifies a pregnancy as being at-risk, within two weeks the patient will be notified that a future appointment has been scheduled with a specialist/diagnostic services

Diabetes time frames:

• Adults who test positive for type 2 diabetes will have an appointment within two months for assessment and diabetes education by a primary health care provider in the community
• Adults who test positive for pre-diabetes will have the opportunity to participate in a diabetes prevention, education and support program (i.e. Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative) within three months
• Adults who have a normal test result will be retested within one year.

Alternative options for care will be identified and offered. Examples may include:

• Option for patient to access other health care providers in the community
• Option for federal health practitioners to be brought in to provide care for the patient

Pilots will include an evaluation component to:

• Measure whether prenatal and diabetes timeframes are met
• Monitor access to alternative options for care
• Monitor the impact of the projects on access and, to the extent possible, outcomes of prenatal and diabetes care.

Pilot Site Selection

Interested communities will be selected to participate by FNIHB National and Regional Offices, AFN and First Nations regions, using community responses to the attached checklists.

Please fill out one or both of the attached checklists. In order to give the maximum number of communities an opportunity to participate, only one pilot project may be located in each community.

Final selections will include a mix of urban, rural, remote, transferred and non-transferred communities. Communities chosen for pilots will have the support of FNIHB regional nursing services, administrative services (e.g., arranging transportation), and expertise.

Following the announcement of selected communities, likely in April 2007, discussions will take place among communities, AFN and FNIHB on the details of community participation, including data collection and privacy considerations. Protocol agreements will be put in place to address data sharing.

Funding will be provided to communities for the direct costs of pilot projects.

For more information and to answer the Community Checklist, please download and fill out the document below.