VANCOUVER—Canada needs innovative solutions to improve home and primary health care so it can match other countries, including Britain and Australia, which have overcome similar problems by spending less money, Health Minister Jane Philpott says.
It’s a myth that Canada has the best health-care system in the world, she told the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) on Tuesday, Aug. 23.
“We spend more per capita on health care than many other countries. What’s worse is while we do this we get poorer outcomes for our patients.”
Philpott, a former family doctor in Stouffville, Ont., said it’s not the quality of health care that needs to be addressed, but the way in which it’s delivered while the federal health-care budget has ballooned to historic highs.
Britain and Australia are spending less per capita and as a percentage of GDP because they have done a better job of co-ordinating care, Philpott said.
Ongoing talks about a new health agreement with the provinces and territories is an opportunity to set health care on a new course and to move “from the middle of the pack” compared to other countries, she said.
“There is so much more that can be done to improve access to home care,” Philpott said, adding $3 billion will be spent over the next few years to address the pressing need.
She said solutions can be found in encouraging better collaboration between family doctors and specialists, using digital technology to keep records and sharing information that patients can access, and giving greater priority to the social factors that affect health, particularly among aboriginal Canadians.
Canada’s health-care infrastructure also needs to be modernized, allowing patients to access their health-care information on their phones, she said.
“We still use fax machines in doctors’ offices and most Canadians can’t go online to get any of their health information,” she said, adding it’s common for patients in the United States to get their test results through an app.
Philpott also said negotiations on a new health-care agreement are an opportunity to “trigger” the innovation needed to fix the system, telling doctors that those who think Canada is stuck with its current system are wrong.
The CMA has identified securing the resources needed to care for the country’s aging population as a pressing need in a new health accord. It has developed several recommendations it would like to see in a new deal, including more funding for provinces with larger populations of seniors, coverage of prescription drugs, and funding for long-term care, home care, and caregivers.
Philpott told reporters after her speech that the issue of opioid overdoses and deaths is an escalating problem in several provinces and that the government has taken several steps to deal with it, including addressing access to unnecessary opioids.
She said the government will hold a summit in the fall and bring together “a very large number of stakeholders to talk about the opioid crisis. It is a pressing health matter in this country and we will be a part of that.”
From The Canadian Press
