The problem with Canadian health care

NL Health Matters
By Mardi Collins

In a study of nine countries in Western Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US, only the US rated worse than Canada in terms of health care performance. Wait times for family doctors, specialists, diagnostics and elective procedures get longer every year. And this is in spite of the fact that Canada spends more money each year on our health care than five of the leading competitors.

Why is this? The main reason is the aging population that requires more and more complex care than in previous years. A discouraged work force is leaving the profession at an alarming rate, and training facilities are not able to adequately increase graduates to meet the demand. Some doctors are reporting that they spend up to 20 hours per week on paperwork, much of which is unnecessary. Many are contemplating early retirement or reduced work weeks. Nurses have long complained of a number of unresolved issues that are leading to an alarming number leaving the profession. As of 2022-2023, surveys showed that roughly 40 to 50 per cent of nurses were considering leaving their jobs, with many reporting burnout rates as high as 94 per cent.

Coupled with that, there is never enough funding for the required health care. This was predicted in the 1990s and at that time the competitive countries developed strategies to avoid the collapse of their health care systems. Unfortunately, Canada just attempted to spend more and the system has remained in deficit since. The sad truth is that if we do not do some things differently, our system will get worse.

The good news is that there have been some excellent studies that looked at what successful universal health care systems are doing. They identified both problems and solutions and today, best practices are widely published. Despite that, most provincial authorities have been reluctant to make major changes. Each of the seven countries that outperformed Canada have three things in common: they use private heath care, encourage purchase of private insurance and they use activity based funding. This type of funding puts patient care first – it does not matter where the patient gets care, just that care is given and universal access is maintained.

We still have time to make changes to our system that will provide a better environment for health care workers, expand the number available, reward good work and access more funding. The information is available Clearly it is time to rethink our health care system.

If you are a health care worker, a clinic manager or a patient with a serious complaint, I want to hear from you. Send me your stories of good ideas or examples of poor decisions that have lead to inefficiencies in our system.

I’ll report on the next steps we can take to finally get the health care system we deserve.

email mardicollins7@gmail.com