arts // eight page insert inside >> harvest jazz and blues fest Volume 143 · Issue 2 • September 16, 2009
thebruns.ca
brunswickan canada’s oldest official student publication.
Health fees for extra services
Varsity Reds kick start season
NBCC set as UNB’s new neighbors
Lee Larrett The Brunswickan
Lee Larrett The Brunswickan Students are about to be charged on a fee for services basis for procedures not covered by Medicare. They can expect to start bringing their wallets to the Student Health Centre to take care of any extra services. These services, for which there has been a charge since Sept. 1, include physical examinations for work or travel, Blue Cross Special Authorization Forms, Accidental/ Disability forms, chart transfers or copies of medical files, letters for work absence, the morning after pill, flu shots, and uninsured office visits. Fees range from $10 for letters and forms, and climb up to $150 for an industrial health physical. These fees are all standard charges in doctors’ offices across New Brunswick. Anne Forrestall ,Executive Director of Student Affairs and Services, describes the goal of the new fees. She explains that the main benefit of a health centre on campus is that students are seen by staff who understand the effect illness can have on their academic progress. “The focus on acute illness, getting students well and back to class as quickly as possible really has been, and should be, the main focus of the Centre,” Forrestall says. She says it was brought to her attention that some services have a charge attached in other offices, so she looked into the practices of other universities. She found that many were charging students for services not covered by Medicare. The fee is “not to disadvantage students but it is to direct the resources in the direction I think we need to be focusing on,” says Forrestall. Forrestall says that it’s “a very small proportion” of students who will need the services for which there is a charge. “We didn’t implement it as a money making process,” she says. Tim Walker, Director of Resource Planning & Budgeting, pointed out that, “The student health center actually does employ part- time nurses at times. I think the idea would be that if they were experiencing a high load for this
Sandy Chase / The Brunswickan
Both the men’s and women’s Varsity Reds soccer teams played UPEI and MtA this past weekend. See the Sports section for the outcomes, as well as health and fitness tips and an update on Chapman Field. type of service and they were … at least recovering a charge then that would allow [the Health Centre] to bring in some help at some point during the year if … the load was building up and you had the money to pay [the extra staff].” He added that performing what he called “value added services” (those not covered by Medicare) without charging the new fees would deplete the budget such that scheduling extra hours and bringing in interns would not be affordable. “Unless we stabilize the budget and find a way to pay for those [uninsured] services then those services would eventually fall off the table and we wouldn’t be able to offer them,” he said. These new fees come at the same time as the addition of a mandatory $50 health fee for all full-time undergraduate students, as well as the opening of the new Jones House Centre. Forrestall clarified the complicated fee changes by explaining that the idea of charging for uninsured services has been in the works for a number of years. It was put through the 2008-09 budget, and research had been done the year prior. The new $50 student health fee added onto the 2009-10 student fees allowed
a Clinic Manager, Patricia Eagan, to be hired. She is responsible for implementing the fee, and she will also be looking at the way the clinic is run, trying to bring it more up to date and take advantage of the larger space of the new clinic. Walker says the Clinic Manager position was implemented as a test run before the student health fee was put in place. “Things started to really churn through efficiently. The Clinic Manager was actually behind a lot of the layout planning for the new centre.” The fee will help to stabilize funding so that the Clinic Manager will remain a position at the Centre, Walker says. The other change to the Health Centre is the implementation of same-day scheduling. Forrestall explained that at the time the decision was made to switch to this method of scheduling, the Health Centre was booking appointments four to six weeks in advance. The clinic is introducing same day scheduling on a trial basis, which allows students to obtain same-day service at the clinic. Part of the Clinic Manager’s role is to determine if this scheduling system is effective. The system has students go through
a triage process. Patients wait to see a nurse, and 30 per cent of the time the nurse can handle the case. The other 70 per cent of cases are given an appointment to see a physician later that day. Forrestall has advice for students who find it difficult to balance hours of classes and commitments in the day with waiting in a doctor’s office. “Obviously getting [to the Health Center] early in the morning is important, and the earlier you can be in the more chance you’ll have of getting an appointment that day.” She also pointed out that when you’re sick, you must make the decision about attending class or work. Sometimes getting better and not exposing others to your illness can be more important than attending a lecture, she says. “There are lots of benefits to having the Health Centre on campus, but there are times when it doesn’t suit the student’s schedule, and there are other alternatives in the community,” Forrestall says. Locations of local after-hours clinics are available on the Health Centre’s website.
Collaboration between UNB and the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC), which will bring Fredericton’s NBCC to the UNB campus, has resulted in $15.5 million in provincial and federal funding. The agreement, which has been in the works for years, has UNB and NBCC sharing land, facilities, programs, services and students. The move is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 2011. New Brunswick Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Donald Arseneault commented that, “it’s going to be a great investment, a great partnership on the University campus ... It’s going to be a great compliment to both St. Thomas University and UNB. We’re all excited ... and you can probably see some action on the site this fall.” “The premier and I met with Dr. Eddy Campbell ,the President of UNB, and he assured us ... that everything is on schedule, and we’re all very excited. It’s an investment that’s been long waiting for the community of Fredericton and I think it’s going to be a tremendous benefit to the citizens,” said Arseneault. “What’s happening here is what we call co-habitation. The students can share some of these services. It’s a benefit to STU and UNB to have some extra traffic in terms of extra students on the campus ground; they can help out with the cafeteria and use the library and other services as well ... There’s a great benefit to doing this and a great cost savings as well in terms of sharing some services,” Arsenault explained. “It’s quite unique to have the three different types of campuses on one site ... it differentiates us from a lot of other places. I think it’s going to help all three institutions attract new students. At the end of the day the student’s going to have a choice of the type of training they want. If you have a college student going to NBCC Fredericton and all of a sudden, after his 2 year program, he decides he wants to pursue
SEE NBCC PAGE 3