Dr. Sunil Patel, president of
the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), highlighted the desperate
need in Canada for real political action to bring about better
access for better health in his speech to the NLMA’s annual general
meeting recently.
“During the past year the CMA
has pressed the point of how the critical shortages of physicians
threaten our health care system,” said Dr. Patel. “The reality is
that better access equals better health. But, in truth, the promise
of access means nothing without enhanced availability of services.”
Dr. Patel said Canada needs a
strategic reinvestment to provide more health care professionals and
the CMA’s National Health Access Campaign, launched this past
February, heralds the need to ACT for ACCESS.
Dr. Patel explained that ACT is
an acronym:
- A — access to high quality care
- C — confidence of Canadians in
their heath care system that must be restored
- T — timeliness of care, something
the public has told us is lacking in the system.
“Political action should begin
with the federal government fulfilling its financial obligation to
the system,” he said, calling on the federal government to lock in
the $2 billion it provided last fiscal year as a contingency to the
base funding provided under the Canadian Health Transfer.
“This should come with two new
and very specific actions. The CMA suggests creating an annual, $200
million Canada Health Access Fund to develop a national care
registry and pan-Canadian referral system built around the concept
of regional networks of service excellence,” explained Dr. Patel.
“This pan-Canadian system would provide for a national registry and
referral system for patients to other parts of the country to access
needed health care services if waits are too long in their own
jurisdiction.”
The CMA is also recommending a
federal Health Reinvestment fund of $4 billion, to be cost-shared by
the provinces, for a total of $8 billion over five years to address
critical capacity issues in the health care system.
“This fund would also help end
the health human resources boom and bust planning cycle by
establishing a National Health Human Resource Strategy,” concluded
Dr. Patel.
“The need for such a strategy
was explained eloquently during your difficult negotiations with
government in 2002,” he continued. “We need more hands on deck. We
need to build a strategic and long-term plan to ensure there are
sufficient health care professionals to provide care for Canadians.
Our politicians must recognize there is no greater issue for
Canadians than timely access to needed health care services.”
The
full text of Dr. Patel’s speech at the NLMA AGM is available on the
NLMA website at
www.nlma.nf.ca. |
