Canadian Health System "Imploding"

[travesty]

I didn't say it ..... the incoming President of the Canadian Medical Association did. Not good for the reform pitch here at home. Hey Canadians, is this group like the American Medical Association here in the US? If so I take it this is just the doctors complaining? Likely about getting paid?

Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada's doctors
By Jennifer Graham (CP) – 2 days ago

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country'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 on Sunday 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," Doing said in an interview with 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-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, 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 other 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 has said.

Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred 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 over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.

"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said. "That's one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."

A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.

Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they've been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that's not the case.

"It's not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."

"That's called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying 'Well, OK, that's good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Canadian people want?' "

Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada's health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn't go well for them or their family.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.

"They have to look at the evidence that's being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada's doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you're getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

[DroppinScience]

Well, the woes that ail the Canadian health care system are legitimate grievances, but I think it's fair to say that our own internal problems with our system pale greatly in comparison to the US health care system's woes.

For example, I remember some campaign attack ads during our election last year, in which the NDP complained that too many Canadians do NOT have a family doctor (i.e. they have to rely on walk-in clinics instead). If that's the worst thing about us, I guess we're not too bad.

I'm really not sure what to say about the incoming Canadian Medical Association president's comments. He might be making it sound like more of a doomsday scenario than it really is. Perhaps our better informed Canucks like Schmeltz or sazi can weigh in on this?

As a Canadian temporarily living in the U.S. right now, I'm just glad to say I haven't got sick here.

[DroppinScience]

And for the record, this Obama plan doesn't even mirror Canadian-style health care at all -- with or without the public option.

[saz]

we've heard this fearmongering for years from the very small, but very vocal far right-wing in this country, which now includes dr. anne doig. it's bullshit. waiting lists are going down throughout the country, we don't need for-profit health care or private health insurance companies.

[travesty]

Originally Posted by saz

we've heard this fearmongering for years from the very small, but very vocal far right-wing in this country, which now includes dr. anne doig. it's bullshit. waiting lists are going down throughout the country, we don't need for-profit health care or private health insurance companies.

The AMA here is never happy either.

[RobMoney$]

http://www.vancouversun.com/story_pr...878506&sponsor

Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government underfunding, leaked paper

VANCOUVER — Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.

Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.
“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”
The health authority confirmed the document is genuine, but said it represents ideas only.
“It is a planning document. It has not been approved or implemented,” said spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.
Dr. Brian Brodie, president of the BC Medical Association, called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.”
“Why would you begin your cost-cutting measures on medically necessary surgery? I just can’t think of a worse place,” Brodie said.
According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.
The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.
As many of 112 full-time jobs — including 13 anesthesiologist positions — would be affected by the reductions, the document says.
“Clearly this will impact the capacity of the health-care system to provide care, not just now but in the future,” Dix said.
Further reductions in surgeries are scheduled during the Olympics, when the health authority plans to close approximately a third of its operating rooms.
Two weeks ago, Dix released a Fraser Health Authority draft communications plan listing proposed clinical care cuts, including a 10-per-cent cut in elective surgeries and longer waits for MRI scans.
The move comes after the province acknowledged all health authorities together will be forced to cut staff, limit some services and increase fees to find $360 million in savings during the current fiscal year.
In all, Fraser Health is looking at a $160-million funding shortfall.
D’Angelo said Vancouver Coastal’s deficit is closer to $90 million — almost a third of which ($23 million) has already been absorbed through reductions in non-clinical administration efficiencies.
Vancouver Coastal performed 67,000 surgeries last year, an increase of 6,500 surgeries over 2007.
“What has now happened is that now our wait times are about 25 per cent lower than the provincial average,” D’Angelo said. “We have put a dent in that wait list.”
Brodie acknowledged surgical waiting times have dropped significantly in recent years, particularly for patients needing hip and joint replacements.
He said the proposed cuts threaten those advancements.
“It sounds like we are going backwards here,” he said.
Total health spending in British Columbia was $15.7 billion this year, up about four per cent over last year’s total of 15.1 billion, according to figures provided by the ministry of health.
Health Minister Kevin Falcon was unavailable for comment Monday on the proposed health-care cuts. A ministry spokesman said Falcon is away on his honeymoon until the end of August.
Elsewhere in British Columbia, the province will look to replace the head of the Interior Health Authority, Murray Ramsden, after he announced he will step down at the end of the year.
Ramsden has said his decision to retire is not related to financial problems faced by the authority.

[Schmeltz]

Originally Posted by travesty

Not good for the reform pitch here at home.

Actually it's irrelevant to Obama's reform pitch because he's not proposing the implementation of anything even close to the Canadian health care system. The right wing of the GOP seems to have siezed on Canada as an example of everything that would be wrong with evil Nazi Hitler Stalin Obama's public health care option, but a) Canada's health care system, though imperfect, works very well for Canadians; and b) Obama's plan is nothing like it at all. So it's just more conservative ass-wind. No surprises there.

Looking at the article though - the headline is totally sensationalist, but the substance is really quite moderate; it actually says quite explicitly that the CMA is in favour of retaining the current system of "universal coverage" (ie the single-payer system) but perhaps with the possibility of expanded private delivery in order to make up perceived shortfalls. That actually might not be a bad idea, if some of the weight of non-essential services could be redirected toward the private sector I'm sure everybody would profit suitably. The difficulty lies in what the CMA proposes in this direction - the example cited is a proposal to redirect funding toward an "activity-based" model, which sounds nice if you don't think about it, but when you do you realize that it would simply mean cutting money out of more thinly populated health care regions and giving it to the major urban centers instead. That would be a good incentive for the big-city doctors, I guess, but it leaves the most vulnerable regions of the country out in the cold.

What I do like about the article is its emphatic insistence that we simply won't have American-style private health care up here. That's because it's shit and it doesn't work.

As for Rob's article, which I'm sure he saw somebody else post on another forum - there's a recession on, dogg. Things is tough all over. The article itself says that the numbers of surgeries performed increased last year, and wait times have a huge dent in them, so it's not like the system doesn't work. Right?

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Schmeltz

Actually it's irrelevant to Obama's reform pitch because he's not proposing the implementation of anything even close to the Canadian health care system. The right wing of the GOP seems to have siezed on Canada as an example of everything that would be wrong with evil Nazi Hitler Stalin Obama's public health care option, but a) Canada's health care system, though imperfect, works very well for Canadians; and b) Obama's plan is nothing like it at all. So it's just more conservative ass-wind. No surprises there.

yeah, but we're still trying to convince people that obama doesn't want to euthanize the elderly, you think they're going to understand the differences between obama's plan and the canadian system? it's a long road to travel my friend

[Schmeltz]

Wait, you don't euthanize your elderly? Wow. I think we passed that in the same package that required all Canadian Jews to wear those convenient yellow stars. Next stop: Alaskaschluss!