We're actually working right now on some staffing models. As my colleague here says, part of the problem with trying to develop what human resources are required for palliative care is that there aren't any good evidence-based models of the numbers of people they have. What is out there starts to talk about how many physicians you need, and that's all it looks at. This can't be looked at as a physician resource issue without looking at a whole-team approach. That's the model we're looking at.
You also can't look at it from a purely demographic numbers approach, either, which is often how it's done. You need x number of doctors per 100,000 people. Well, 100,000 people in an older part of the country is different from, say, Calgary, where you generally have a younger population. You have to look at the curves of that same 100,000 people. How many people are over the age of 65? Where are the demands at this time?
We're developing a model that really will be looking at the team approach of how many nurses, social workers, pharmacists with extra training in palliative medicine, and palliative care physicians as a specialty team need to be in an area based on, really, even going back and looking at our death rate, because that tells you how many people, as a better number than just pure population, are needing these kinds of services.
We're in the process of working on that right now, but that is something that's very much needed. There are great models across the country showing how this can be done. Again, I go right back to Dame Cicely Saunders, who was the founder of the modern hospice movement. She said this is best delivered by an interdisciplinary team having access to that good quality palliative care nurse.
Honestly, I see the palliative care nurse as the key ingredient to this whole mixture, especially for community, rural, urban, everywhere, because you can have more nurses out there working with the primary care teams, physicians, nurse practitioners, and so on, helping to guide them a little bit but also helping to ensure that the right assessments are being done, the right information is getting to the primary care team, and when it's more complex, being able to pull in the palliative care consultant to be able to help with more of that expertise.
I think that's the way we need to be looking at moving forward, so we are working on that. Hopefully, over the next few months, we'll have some better, clearer.... I know what we need, but I can't tell you it yet.