Most Canadians are unlikely to see an improvement in the quality of health care in their province, despite new federal health agreements signed with multiple provinces to quell the health crisis spreading across Canada. A new study suggests that this is the case.
Leger's poll comes nearly a year after the federal government proposed a $196 billion health care deal to states to increase health care funding and address a worsening shortage of health care workers.
“We know we need to do better. We need to deliver the solutions Canadians need, faster,” said Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the Canadian Medical Association. I did.
Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals have long warned that a dangerous shortage of health care workers risks leading to understaffed emergency rooms and a lack of primary care felt throughout the health care system.
The survey shows Canadians are feeling the impact, too, with 70 per cent of respondents saying they are worried that they or their loved ones will not have access to quality health care if they need it. found.
“It is deeply concerning that Canadians are losing confidence in Canada's health care system,” Ross said. “It's important that we do everything we can to rebuild Canadians' trust in our health-care system, and that starts with regular, accessible care.”
So far, Alberta, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories have met one-on-one with the federal government to increase federal health funding and target weaknesses in their respective systems. have an agreement.
Despite signs that governments are working together to improve the situation, only 17 poll respondents said they felt the state of health care was likely to improve over the next two years. %was.
“We need to get more provinces to sign up for federal funding and make sure that federal funding is going into the system,” said Stephen, national director of policy and advocacy at the Canadian Health Federation.・Mr. Staples said.
Leger's web survey of 1,536 Canadian adults cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered true random samples.
A whopping 87 per cent of people surveyed in Atlantic Canada said they were worried they wouldn't be able to get the care they need.
People in Atlantic Canada and Quebec were also more likely to rate their health care system as poor or very poor, at 66% and 51%, respectively.
Meanwhile, 46% of people in Alberta and 40% of British Columbians said their health care systems were in good shape.
Leger asked people to choose the word that comes to mind when they think of Canada's health care system, and 66 per cent chose “long wait times,” 42 per cent said “stress,” and 40 per cent chose “failure.” is.
When asked about the shortage of healthcare workers, 67% of respondents pointed to poor working conditions and long working hours in hospitals.
Forty percent said the problem was due to lower health care costs, and another 40% said it was due to retirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to put more money into the system.”
Last year, state premiers called on the prime minister to negotiate a new health funding deal to address the ills of the health system. All provinces except Quebec signed the Ottawa agreement in principle.
Each province must reach a one-on-one individual agreement with Ottawa by March to access the funds.
“We need to be accountable for the health care dollars that are being put into this system,” Staples said. “The federal government is already putting money into the system, but not all states have taken up the offer. We don't know why, but we need to put more money into the system, and we need to spend that money wisely. It is a public system that must be used. ”
Bacchus Barua, director of health policy at the Fraser Institute, believes that continued injection of money into a broken system will not solve the situation, but will instead create a system that is unsustainable in the long term. .
“What local areas need more than money is the freedom to experiment with policies that have actually been successful in other countries,” Barua said. “That's what we need to do to get a long-term solution to this persistent problem that we've had for over 30 years.”
