It’s a bittersweet anniversary.
A little over a year ago, the federal government announced the most significant investment in provincial and territorial health-care systems in more than two decades.
This was a long-awaited shot in the arm for a health system reeling from decades of inadequate support, the COVID-19 pandemic, massive surgical backlogs and health-care provider burnout. And these funds had some strings attached.
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The federal government set priority areas for targeted investment and introduced accountability measures that provinces and territories must adhere to. But much of this funding remains on the shelf.
To date, only four provinces have signed agreements with the federal government, and while we expect other announcements in the weeks ahead, this means health-care investment has been largely untapped. Meanwhile, millions of Canadians continue to wait for the care they need, and health-care professionals are pushed well beyond their limits.
Money alone can’t solve our national health care crisis. Injecting money into a broken system is not the way forward. We need a new vision, a long-term plan, for how we deliver health care in our country. The good news is that proven models already exist, but it’s up to the provinces and territories to deliver them across the country.
Primary care reform is one example. While we are comfortable with our traditional model, consulting with a family physician working alone in a community-based practice, the realities of an increasingly complex and aging population make this unsustainable.
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Mounting evidence over many years supports team-based care as a more effective model. It enables patients to see the right professional at the right time and for health-care providers to practise to the full scope of their training in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary environment. Team-based care reduces provider burnout rates, increases job satisfaction and improves access for patients.
This is the kind of systemic change that we need to see, everywhere. It will require a shift in mindset, time, effort, and yes, money, to implement. It’s also a tangible, achievable goal.
The elephant in the room governments must also address is the administrative burden faced by health-care providers, notably physicians. According to the Fédération des Omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ), which represents the province’s family doctors, reducing the time physicians spend on paperwork from 24 to 10 per cent would have the same impact as adding 600 full-time doctors to the health-care system.
Optimizing family physicians’ daily work is an attainable objective that should be pursued in every jurisdiction. Doctors go into medicine to treat people, not to spend 10 hours a week completing insurance forms.
There are other ideas, big and small, to cure our health systems and make effective models of care available to all Canadians. Reforms to physician mobility, for example, and integrated health workforce planning.
One year from this historic investment in Canadian health care, the ball is now in premiers’ court. Hope can be found in the leadership of some leaders making health a priority for their constituents. However, to be successful in modernizing medical care, every premier needs to make health a priority, especially those who have not yet submitted their action plans.
We need concrete action, better collaboration, and less political posturing from all levels of government. The trust Canadians have in their health-care system is at stake.
Dr. Kathleen Ross is president of the Canadian Medical Association.
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