The Yukon Registered Nurses Association wants to meet with Department of Health and Social Services officials to discuss the possibility of a community health centre in Whitehorse.

'I think we now need to follow up,' Patricia McGarr, the association's executive director, said in an interview this morning.

Last Thursday, the group released a statement calling for community health centres to be set up. They would include a number of health professionals such as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nutritionists.

'This is a suggestion at this point,' McGarr explained.

The association noted a good first step in establishing such health centres throughout the territory would be to set up community health centres and introduce nurse practitioners to the capital city to provide options for more timely access to health care.

'Rural Yukoners have an amazing service at their community health centres,' association president Lee Ash noted in the statement. 'They have access to a community nurse practitioner 24 hours a day, seven days a week.'

The nurse practitioner can provide services such as complete physical exams, health teaching and illness prevention, emergency care, diagnoses, prescriptions, treatment for common illnesses, and orders bloodwork.

They also often participate in community development, the association argues.

'Residents of Whitehorse do not have this option as there are no community health centres nor access to a nurse practitioner,' Ash said.

There's definitely a need for at least one such health centre in Whitehorse, McGarr said. However, more research would need to be done to determine whether there should be more, as well as the cost involved in developing such a centre.

Options need to be explored by health care professionals, government, the public and other stakeholders, she noted.

Providing access to a number of health professionals in one centre could mean waiting lists are cut down as the various workers would be able to refer patients to one another. For example, it could mean easier access to a physiotherapist. It would also cut down on the waiting lists for doctors.

McGarr pointed out the suggestion for such health care centres has come up numerous times before by members of the public and health care workers.

The suggestion even goes back a few years ago to a forum hosted by the Department of Health and Social Services as well as at the forums hosted by the Roy Romanow commission's report on federal health care.

'We need to establish community health centres with teams of health professionals who will work collaboratively to provide primary health care,' Ash said.

'Roy Romanow (a former Saskatchewan premier) has recommended this. First ministers have recommended this and just last week, the Health Council of Canada has tagged this as a priority for action.'

McGarr noted while the association has wanted to move ahead on such a project for quite a while, it now seems to be the right time.

'The federal government has recognized the positive impact nurse practitioners are having on the health of Canadians, and have therefore provided a considerable amount of funding to the Canadian Nurses Association for the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Initiative,' McGarr said in the statement.

A discussion paper has been distributed nationally and throughout the territory about nurse practitioners and issues for the Yukon, she noted.

The Canadian Nurses Association is starting the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Initiative. The association recently received $8.9 million from Health Canada's primary health care transition fund to begin the initiative.

The program is designed to facilitate ongoing integration of the nurse practitioner role in health care in order to improve access to health services.

Recommendations and strategies for this will be developed in the areas of legislation and regulation; practice and evaluation; health human resource planning; education; and change management, social marketing and strategic communications.

Acting cabinet spokesman Albert Petersen said this morning the Department of Health and Social Services is reviewing the association's suggestion for a health centre in Whitehorse.