If they’re really going to transform health care, premiers must present a united front
Don Drummond is the School of Policy Studies Stauffer-Dunning Fellow, Duncan Sinclair is professor emeritus of physiology and David Walker is professor of emergency medicine and policy studies and former dean of health sciences, at Queen’s University.
From coast to coast to coast, Canadians are increasingly worried that health services will not be there for them. Memories of the record number of deaths from COVID-19 in long-term care homes still linger. There are millions of Canadians without family physicians and other providers of primary care, while long wait times and even closings of hospital emergency rooms persist.
Some remedial actions are already under way. The provinces and territories, in acting on their constitutional responsibility to look after the health of their citizens, are in the process of making significant changes. For example, Alberta has nearly completed its adoption of a single and shared clinical record system. Nova Scotia is deploying nurse practitioners and pharmacists to bolster people’s access to primary care.
But much more needs to be done – and more quickly and decisively. At the top of the list is helping the 6.5 millionaccess to primary care. Premiers could set a target at their meeting to boost the number of Canadian adults with a primary caregiver from 78 per cent to at least 85 per cent within five years.
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