Top doctor says Canadian health care system is imploding!
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Canada - August 16, 2009 - The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says Canada's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.
Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care, and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon today for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.
"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doig told The Canadian Press.
"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."
The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centered. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage, and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."
In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.
He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget.
This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he said.
Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed blueprint toward patient-centered care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She'd like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change.
"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said.
A long-term goal would be getting health systems talking to each other, so information can be quickly shared to help patients.
Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care, and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon today for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.
"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doig told The Canadian Press.
"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."
The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centered. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage, and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."
In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.
He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget.
This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he said.
Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed blueprint toward patient-centered care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She'd like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change.
"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said.
A long-term goal would be getting health systems talking to each other, so information can be quickly shared to help patients.
