With economic growth having slowed, Budget 2009 provides an historic opportunity to invest in initiatives that will stimulate the Canadian economy in the short term while also strengthening it in the long term. With the federal government now considering several areas for potential fiscal stimulus, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) views infrastructure spending as the government's best option. In order to provide much-needed immediate economic stimulus and a responsible, long-term strategy to achieve economic stability, the CMA recommends the federal government invest $2.4 billion in health infrastructure upgrade initiatives to be carried out over the next two years. These initiatives fall into three priority areas:
1) Accelerating existing or "construction-ready" capital projects in health care facilities.
The CMA recommends a federal investment of $1.5 billion over two years to accelerate existing hospital and health facility construction projects. While investments in physical infrastructure are required across the continuum of care, a focus on hospital construction - specifically on construction-ready projects already approved at the provincial level - will allow funds to flow more quickly and thus provide a more immediate economic stimulus. Federal investment in hospital and health facility construction will create 16,500 jobs over two years and 11,000 jobs in 2009 alone. These projects may be financed through existing public-private partnerships (P3s). With targeted and strategic federal investment, health facility capital projects would also stimulate further investment in the form of private-sector financing of these capital projects.
2) Accelerating implementation of electronic medical records.
Health system information technology is an area where infrastructure investments are needed and would provide significant return on investment through immediate economic stimulus and improved health system efficiency in the medium and long term. CMA recommends that the federal government make a strategic "strings attached" $225-million investment in an Electronic Medical Record Patient Transition Fund that could be managed by the Canada Health Infoway.
3) Modernizing information systems in small- and medium-sized health care facilities.
A federal investment of $700 million over two years to upgrade information system hardware and software in small- and medium-sized hospitals could be implemented within the next eight quarters and begin to create 7,700 jobs and rapidly improve health care efficiency.
These health infrastructure investments would create 27,000 new jobs over the next two years:
1. 16,500 jobs for existing hospital building projects that are "construction ready";
2. 4,950 jobs for electronic medical records (EMR) implementation for community-based health care offices;
3. 7,700 jobs for hospital information systems in small- and medium-sized hospitals.
Introduction
In these challenging economic times, the federal government is to be commended for casting a wide net in search of effective and immediate measures to stimulate Canada's economy. Of course, Canadians must also be assured that we will not be mortgaging our future by doing so.
In order to both provide much-needed immediate economic stimulus and a responsible, long-term strategy to achieve economic stability, the CMA recommends that the federal government invest $2.4 billion in health infrastructure upgrade initiatives to be carried out over the next two years. These investments would stimulate further provincial/territorial and private-sector investment. To be clear: these recommendations are in the context of a fiscal stimulus plan and do not encompass CMA's entire long-term vision for high-quality and patient-focused health care.
The CMA initiatives fall into three priority areas:
1) Accelerating existing or "construction-ready" capital projects in health care facilities;
2) Accelerating implementation of electronic medical records;
3) Modernizing information systems in small- and medium-sized health care facilities.
A critical factor in these recommendations is the fact that the federal government already has in place funding mechanisms to deliver stimulus funds rapidly in all three areas. Canada Health Infoway is such an established vehicle for the EMR initiative and the upgrading of hospital information systems. The Canada Foundation for Innovation or an expanded "Building Canada" program are initiatives that have organizations in place to administer the investments in hospital construction projects. Additionally, these initiatives are flexible in both size and duration.
Most economists agree that increasing infrastructure spending generally will boost the economy by creating jobs. In no sector is this more true than health care. Infrastructure investments, will lead to higher employment and more spending on products and services, and generate higher overall demand.i (See Appendix A for investment and job creation quarterly forecasts 2009/2010ii). The Business Register of Statistics Canada reports there were 75,615 establishments in the health service delivery (HSD) industry in 2003, employing 1.3 million people. That year, they accounted for 3.3% of all Canadian business establishments and 7.6% of total employment. In 2003, the GDP of the HSD industry was larger than wholesale trade, retail trade, and the upstream oil and gas mining industry, and almost as large as the construction sector. Physicians' offices (30,120 establishments) accounted for almost 39% of all HSD establishments and employed 142,000 people, or almost 11% of all HSD employees. By targeting investment in the three areas outlined above, the government will respond to Canadians' desire for a strengthened health care system, support Canada's competitive advantage and create 27,000 jobs in the next two years (Figure 1).
1. Accelerating Health Facility Construction Projects
The CMA recommends that the federal government invest $1.5 billion over two years to accelerate hospital and/or health facility projects that are "construction ready".
In 2001 the CMA identified inadequate investment in buildings, machinery and equipment and in scientific, professional and medical devices as major hurdles to timely access to health care services. While spending has increased in health care since then, governments have placed a lower priority on capital investment when allocating financial resources for health care.
The CMA recommends a federal investment of $1.5 billion over two years to accelerate existing hospital and health facility construction projects. This does not capture all the capital requirements in the health system in the medium- and long-term. While investments in physical infrastructure are required across the continuum of care, a focus on hospital construction - specifically on construction-ready projects - will allow funds to flow more quickly and thus provide a more immediate stimulus to the economy. Federal investment in hospital and health facility construction will create 16,500 jobs over a two-year period and 11,000 jobs in 2009 alone. These projects may be financed through existing public-private partnerships (P3s).
With targeted and strategic federal investment, health facility capital projects can also stimulate further investment in the form of private-sector financing of capital projects. Across Canada hospitals are seeking to develop innovative approaches to financing capital infrastructure. The CMA agrees with other organizations such as the Canadian Healthcare Association about the need to explore the concept of entering into public-private partnerships to address capital infrastructure needs as an alternative to relying on government funding. Joint ventures and hospital bonds are but two examples of P3 financing.
As these types of partnerships are pursued, the CMA recommends that governments establish uniform requirements and regulations to ensure the transparency of the tendering process and adequate measuring of quality of care and cost-effectiveness in both public and private settings.iii
The federal government has long showed great leadership in partnering to build Canada's health care system - the Hospital Construction Grants Program of 1948 and the Health Resources Fund Act of 1966. Today our country and our health care system need a new vision for replacing aging physical infrastructure.
2. Electronic Medical Records - Accelerating Coverage for 26 Million Patients
CMA recommends that the federal government invest $225 million over two years to accelerate the implementation of an interoperable electronic medical record across Canada.
International studies confirm that Canada lags behind nearly every major industrial country
when it comes to the adoption of health information technology (Figure 8). The Conference Board of Canadaiv, the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD)v, the World Health Organizationvi, the Commonwealth Fundvii, and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy all rate Canada's health care system poorly in terms of value for money and efficiency. The impact of this underinvestment is longer wait times, poorer quality, greater health system costs and a severe lack of financial accountability - especially when it comes to federal dollars.
Health system information technology is an area where infrastructure investments are needed and would provide significant return on investment through immediate economic stimulus and improved health system efficiency in the medium- and long-term. CMA recommends that the federal government make a strategic, "strings attached,"1 $225-million investment in an Electronic Medical Record Patient Transition Fund that could be managed by the Canada Health Infoway.2 The fund would finance EMR capital equipment acquisition and EMR change management and transition support, specifically the conversion of 26 million patient records in 30,000 physician offices.
This federal investment would be matched by provincial-territorial funds and would thus provide a total of $450 million in economic stimulus and create 5000 new jobs over two years. While public funds would kick-start this initiative, they would stimulate considerable private sector activity in the provision of EMR capabilities across Canada. Assuming the current trend prevails, the ongoing management of the data holdings would be outsourced to private sector companies based on application service provider arrangements.
Moreover, these investments are consistent with the Building Canada plan's focus on broadband and connectivity, and with Advantage Canada's goals of creating a knowledge advantage and an infrastructure advantage.
Beyond providing immediate stimulus to the Canadian economy, a fully realized EMR system will improve patient outcomes, system efficiency and accountability and save billions of dollars annually. Technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton found that the benefits of an interconnected Electronic Health Record (EHR) in Canada could provide annual system-wide savings of $6.1 billion.viii These savings would come from reduced duplicate testing, transcription savings, fewer chart pulls and less filing time, reductions in office supplies and reduced expenditures due to fewer adverse drug reactions. The study also found that the benefits to health care outcomes would equal or surpass these annual savings, thus providing a possible combined annual savings of $12.2 billion.
By reducing wait times, an interoperable EMR will contribute to saving the Canadian economy billions of dollars each year. A study commissioned by the CMA conservatively calculated that excessive wait times involving just four procedures (joint replacements, cataract surgery, coronary artery bypass grafts and MRIs) cost the economy over $14 billion in 2007 due to lost output and government revenues.ix
The Electronic Medical Record Patient Transition Fund focuses on community care and the physician offices where most patient visits occur. Most of the emphasis on connectivity in Canadian health care to date has not focused on the point of care, even though the number of patient interactions with hospitals is greatly exceeded by the number of visits to physicians' offices.x Thus, patient-physician office interactions outnumber patient-hospital interactions by a ratio of 18 to 1. In Ontario (Figure 2), just 3,000 of an average of 247,000 patient visits per day, or 1.2%, are made in hospitals.
Figure 2 Patient visits per day in Ontario (Canada Health Infoway)
3. Modernizing Hospital Information Systems
The federal government should invest $700 million over two years to modernize information systems in small- and medium-sized hospitals.
Aging information systems in small hospitals (fewer than 100 beds) and medium-sized hospitals (100 to 300 beds) create considerable inefficiency in patient care and administration. While larger hospitals have upgraded their information systems, hundreds of smaller facilities have information systems that are at least 10 years old.
This means that patients are often forced to provide their personal and health information many times: when checking in to the emergency department, then when having a diagnostic test performed, and again when being admitted to hospital. Each step creates room for error and needlessly wastes the time of health care staff and patients. In addition, these discrete systems may not be networked, a situation that risks compromising patient care.
A federal investment of $700 million over two years to upgrade information system hardware and software in small- and medium-sized hospitals could be implemented within the next eight quarters and begin to create 7,700 jobs and rapidly improve health care efficiency. The $700 million investment is based on a recent conservative estimate for outfitting hospitals across the country (see Appendix B).
There are at least 70 medium-sized Canadian hospitals requiring major system upgrades immediately at a cost of $15 million per hospital. The distribution of these hospitals would help spread out the fiscal stimulus regionally and mitigate against potential labour shortages.
The $700-million recommendation assumes that the majority of hospital information system investments (64%) would need to be focused on the hardware and professional services related to implementing the new systems, with the rest focused on system software. It is important to note that these investments would help support related Canadian software, hardware and professional services firms over the next 24 months and beyond. More importantly, the hospital information system sector is a multibillion dollar global industry.
A fiscal stimulus investment in this sector now would help Canadian firms to capitalize on a golden opportunity to export these goods and services, which are increasingly in high demand.xi It is also important that patients be involved in evaluating these systems in order to improve care and system efficiencies. As Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business noted: "We can dramatically improve the production of globally competitive health care product and services firms, but only if we work to significantly improve the demand side (patients) of our innovation equation."xii This is in line with the CMA's call for patient-focused funding.
Conclusion
That these are extraordinary economic times is beyond question, but the CMA contends that it is precisely during such times that opportunities often present themselves. We think the federal government must continue to examine and leverage all available policy levers at its disposal, including studying how the tax system could be used to support renewal within the health care sector.
The tax system's level of support for people facing high out-of-pocket expenses remains a particularly pressing question. Currently, the medical expenses tax credit provides limited relief to those whose expenses exceed $1,637, or 3% of net income. The 3% threshold was established before medicare was introduced. Does it still make sense in 2009? Are there ways to enhance this provision to reduce financial disincentives facing many Canadians when they have to pay for health services?
The CMA encourages the federal government to undertake a comprehensive review of these and other tax questions pertaining to health. By itself, tax policy will not solve all the challenges facing Canada's health care system, but the CMA believes that the tax system can play a key role in helping the system adapt to changing circumstances, thereby complementing the other two components of our renewal strategy.
Similarly, the government must remember that almost five million Canadians do not have a family physician and that Canada needs 26,000 more doctors to meet the OECD average of physicians per population. The federal government wisely recognized the urgency of this situation when it committed to several targeted and affordable measures to begin to address the doctor shortage. It should follow through on its election commitment to take first steps towards addressing the shortage, including contributing $10 million per year over four years to provinces to allow them to fund 50 new residencies per year in Canada's major teaching hospitals, and $5 million per year over four years to help Canadian physicians living abroad who wish to relocate to Canada. These initiatives would begin to increase the supply and retention of physicians in areas of priority need, and could bring back as many as 300 Canadian physicians over four years.
Today, the federal government is focused on instituting specific, strategic and immediate economic stimulus measures, and rightfully so. However, we must not let the urgent crowd out the important in terms of building a sustainable health care system that provides timely access to quality health care services for all Canadians.
Appendix A. Investment and job creation profile estimates 2009-10
B. Projected Costs to Implement / Upgrade Hospital Information Systems3
Assumptions
1. Total number of hospitals in Canada = 734
a. % small hospitals (< 100 beds) = 69%
b. % medium hospitals (< 300 beds) = 18%
2. Components in hospital information systems
a. Finance & Administration
b. Admission, Discharge, Transfer (ADT) System
c. Patient Information System
d. Radiology Information System
e. Laboratory Information System
f. Pharmacy Information System
g. Coding & Abstracting System
3. Cost to implement complete HIS for medium size hospital = $15 million
a. Ratio of software to hardware and professional services - 1:1.8
b. Software = $5,357,143
c. Hardware & Professional Services = $9,642,857
4. Small hospitals (i.e. < 25 beds) would not have the resources to manage a full HIS
a. Cluster implementations among 8 hospitals
b. Number of clusters = 33 (total # of hospitals = 270)
5. Small hospitals would have greater requirement for full implementation of HIS
a. % of hospitals requiring full implementations = 50%
b. Number of hospitals (exclusive of clusters in #4) = 117
c. Total number including clusters in # 4 requiring full implementation = 91
d. Cost to implement full HIS - 60% of medium hospital implementation = $9 million
6. Medium sized hospitals with systems > 10 years old would require full implementation
a. % of hospitals requiring full HIS implementation = 30%
b. Number of hospitals= 40
7. Major system upgrades are estimated at 40% of cost of a full HIS
a. Cost to complete system upgrade = $6 million
b. % small hospitals (# of beds between 25 - 99) requiring upgrade = 30%
c. Number of hospitals = 70
d. % of medium hospitals requiring upgrade = 30%
e. Number of hospitals = 40
Investment Needed
1. Investment required for small hospitals - full implementation
$ 9,000,000 x 91 = $ 819,000,000
2. Investment required for small hospitals - system upgrade
$ 6,000,000 x 70 = $ 420,000,000
3. Investment required for medium hospitals - full implementation
$ 15,000,000 x 40 = $ 600,000,000
4. Investment required for medium hospitals - system upgrades
$ 6,000,000 x 40 = $ 240,000,000
5. Total investment for HIS for small and medium size hospitals
$ 2,079,000,000
References
1 The conditions of this health information investment should include:
* Fifty-fifty FPT cost sharing;
* Involvement of the clinical community in the input and oversight of the program;
* Use of consistent standards.
2 See Table l in Appendix A for full investment horizon details.
3 Prepared for the Canadian Medical Association by Branham Group December 2008
see: http://www.branhamgroup.com/company.php
i Will Stimulus Help Employment in a 21st Century Economy? Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 2008.
ii These estimates were derived using the principle of an employment multiplier and adapted using the methodology applied by Informetrica for an infrastructure study they prepared for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (05/08).
iii Improving performance measurement, quality assurance and accountability in the public-private interface - CMA Policy Statement, It's still about access! Medicare Plus, July 2007
iv A Report Card on Canada see: http://sso.conferenceboard.ca/HCP/overview/health-overview.aspx
v Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2007). OECD Health
Data 2007. Version 07/18/2007. CD-ROM. Paris: OECD.
vi World Health Organization [WHO] (2007). World Health Statistics 2007. see: http://www.who.int.
vii Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care May 15, 2007 (updated May 16, 2007)
Volume 59
Authors: Karen Davis, Ph.D., Cathy Schoen, M.S., Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., M.P.H., Michelle M. Doty, Ph.D., M.P.H., Alyssa L. Holmgren, M.P.A., Jennifer L. Kriss, and Katherine K. Shea
Editor(s):Deborah Lorber see: www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=482678
viii Booz, Allan, Hamilton. Canada Health Infoway's 10-Year Investment Strategy: pan-Canadian electronic health record, March 2005-09-06.
ix The economic cost of wait times in Canada, January 2008. This study was commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association to analyze the economic costs of wait times in Canada's medical system. The CMA's membership includes more than 67,000 physicians, medical residents and medical students. It plays a key role by representing the interests of these members and their patients on the national stage. Located in Ottawa, the CMA has roots across the country through its close ties to its 12 provincial and territorial divisions.
See: www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Media_Release/pdf/2008/EconomicReport.pdf
x Sources: Physician visits - CIHI - Physicians in Canada: Fee-for-Service Utilization 2005-2006. Table 1-21. Hospital contacts - CIHI - Trends in Acute Inpatient Hospitalizations and Day surgery Visits in Canada 1995-1996 to 2005-2006 and CIHI -National Ambulatory Care Reporting System - Visit Disposition by Triage Level for All Emergency Visits - 2005-2006.
xi Canada boasts a sophisticated network of providers, many globally-recognized hospitals, and a number of major centres for health research. We spend aggressively in global terms on health research, which is supported nationally by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). But against this backdrop lies a mystery: why do so few Canadian health care firms sell their products and services in the international market? Only nine sell as much as $100 million of any product or service to customers outside the country, with total sector sales outside Canada of less than $5 billion. This sector total compares unfavourably with the foreign sales of individual firms such as Bombardier at $22 billion, and Magna International at $14 billion; overseas health-care sales are even dominated by the export of sawn logs, at $9 billion. see: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/rogermartin/Canadianhealthcaremystery.pdf (accessed January 7, 2009)
From: Roger, Martin, The Canadian Health Care Mystery: Where Are the Exports? Rotman magazine (Winter 2006).
xii Ibid.
"More Doctors. More Care:" A Promise Yet Unfulfilled - The Canadian Medical Association's brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health concerning health human resources
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) brief submitted to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health makes 12 practical recommendations within the jurisdiction of the federal government for investing in the capacity needed to expand and retain our practising physician population. These recommendations are a clarion call for pan-Canadian planning and innovative thinking to meet an ever-increasing demand for physician services from the Canadian public. CMA's research on Health Care Transformation has shown that a commitment to ensuring an adequate supply of health human resources (HHR) is a common trait shared by high-performing European health systems. The last federal election campaign saw most political parties pledge to urgently address HHR shortages. Now is the time to keep those election commitments.
A. Capacity
Cuts to medical school enrolment in the 1990s contributed to Canada's significant shortage of physicians. Growing demand for physician services, the aging of the physician population and changing practice styles among younger physicians are further compounding the problem. Seriously addressing HHR shortages is crucial to transforming Canada's health care system into one that is truly patient focused.
Canada should strive for self-sufficiency in physician supply and do more to repatriate Canadians studying and practising medicine abroad. The CMA supports bringing into practice qualified international medical graduates (IMGs) already in Canada. IMGs should be assessed according to the same evaluation standards as Canadian graduates and more should be done to reduce the backlog in assessing IMGs. With recent increases to medical school enrolment, more support must also be given for the capital infrastructure and faculty required to ensure the highest standard of medical education.
B. Retention
Competition for physicians is an issue with both international and inter-provincial/territorial facets. The revised Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) and bilateral agreements will ease the movement of health professionals across jurisdictions, but may exacerbate retention difficulties in underserviced areas. Canada should be active in retaining and repatriating our health care professionals, particularly since the predicted physician shortage in the United States may result in a return to the physician out-migration seen in the 1990s.
C. Innovation
Canada must do more to encourage innovation within our health care system. Collaborative care - including care delivered with the assistance of Physician Assistants (PAs) - and advances in information technology hold the promise of helping create a more efficient health care system that provides higher quality care.
Introduction
Canada has suffered from a significant physician shortage since the mid-1990s. Nationally, we rank 26th of 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries in physician-to-population ratio. We would need 20,000 new physicians just to meet the OECD average.
Figure 1: Physicians per 1000 population (including residents)
Source: OECD 2008 Health Data; CMA Physician Resources Evaluation Template
During the 2008 federal election campaign, four of the five parties represented in the House of Commons recognized the urgency of this situation and promised measures that would address HHR shortages. Following through on these promises is critical if we are to transform Canada's health care system into one that truly puts the needs of patients first. Research conducted for CMA's Health Care Transformation initiative demonstrates that European countries whose health care systems outperform our own all share a strong commitment to HHR, as demonstrated by their higher physician-to-population rankings.
A. Capacity
First-year medical school enrolment was already in decline when health ministers imposed a further 10% cut resulting in a low of 1,577 places in 1997. While there have been substantial increases since then, it took a decade to rebound. In 2007, first-year enrolment stood at 2,569 - 63% higher than a decade earlier. If we had left our domestic production unchanged, we would have almost 1,300 more physicians than we have today.
Canada remains well behind other industrialized countries in the education and training of physicians. In 2005, Canada graduated 5.8 physicians per 100,000 population, 40% below the 9.6 average for the OECD.
Currently, between 4 and 5 million Canadians do not have a family physician. Over one-third of all Canadian physicians are over the age of 55. Many will either retire soon or reduce their practice workload. Most are not accepting new patients.
Ironically, advances in medicine and lifestyle that are helping Canadians live better and longer also mean increased demand for health care professionals. An aging population with high expectations of the health care system is increasing pressure on health care providers to ensure they maintain a high quality of life through their elder years. A growing culture of 'health consumerism,' facilitated by the Internet has resulted in a very knowledgeable patient population that expects top quality care delivered in a timely manner by the appropriate health professional.
Advances in medical diagnostics and technology, new and evolving diseases and increasingly complex protocols and guidelines for medical care all increase the demand for physician services. Declining mortality rates for patients with diseases such as cancer have increased treatment of what have become 'chronic' diseases. In a collaborative care setting, physicians often take responsibility for the most complex patients.
There is evidence of a cultural change among physicians to place greater importance on their home life by working less. This trend may have a positive effect on the health of the profession but it means Canada will need more physicians to provide the same volume of services.
Greater coordination among jurisdictions is needed to facilitate HHR planning on a national scale. Canada's doctors and other health professions are ready to assist policy-makers in their planning and coordination to better meet the health care needs of Canadians.
During the 2008 federal election campaign, most political parties recognized the urgency of addressing HHR shortages. The Conservative Party, specifically, promised to fund 50 new residency positions to increase supply of physicians in areas of priority need.
Recommendation 1: The federal government should fulfill its promise to fund 50 new residency positions at a cost of $10 million per year for four years.
Support for IMGs
The CMA fully supports bringing into practice qualified IMGs already in Canada. Canada has historically benefited from a steady flow of IMGs to our country. In fact, close to one quarter of all physicians in Canada and over 50% of doctors in Saskatchewan are IMGs. Many areas in Canada would have no physicians if not for the contribution of these practitioners.
While IMGs are a boon to Canada, actively recruiting from developing countries is not an acceptable solution to our physician shortage. Canada must strive for greater self-sufficiency in the education and training of physicians. In fact, self-sufficiency is a key principle of the government's Advisory Committee on Health Delivery and Human Resources' Framework for Collaborative Pan-Canadian Health Human Resources Planning.
CMA supports online assessment tools and websites that provide information to foreign-trained physicians so they know what standards they must meet once they arrive in Canada. In 2006, over 1700 people used the online assessment tool established by the Medical Council of Canada (MCC). CMA also supports applying the same evaluation standards to international graduates as it does to graduates of Canadian medical schools.
Despite a four-fold increase in the number of IMGs in ministry-funded postgraduate training programs over the last decade, there is still a backlog of IMGs awaiting entry into these programs. About 1300 IMGs applied for a postgraduate training position last year but only 350 (27%) were successful. CMA recommends that funding be made available to provinces for use in mentoring IMGs towards licensure. This could lower costs for the IMGs, pay the community preceptors, cover operational costs and defray other expenses.
It is estimated that up to 1500 Canadians are studying medicine abroad. Two-thirds of these IMGs want to come home to complete their postgraduate training. Canada turns away four good applicants for every student accepted into medical school. Increased training opportunities for all groups of IMGs will ensure that Canada fully utilizes the skills and knowledge of its citizens who have studied medicine.
Recommendation 2: The federal government should make $5 million (over five years), available to provinces/territories to address the backlog of IMGs through community preceptorship programs that mentor and assess IMGs for integration into the physician community.
Recommendation 3: The federal government should take concrete steps to ensure Canada becomes self-sufficient when it comes to the supply of health care professionals.
Recommendation 4: The federal government should continue to fund information tools such as the IMG-Canada website to better inform offshore physicians.
Infrastructure and faculty
Canada's teaching centres have had to absorb increases in operational and infrastructure costs to accommodate increased enrolment. This includes instructors, space, overhead and supplies. While it appears that the number of faculty members has kept pace with the increased number of medical students, part-time faculty now make up a much larger proportion of the total than 10 years ago. i
In addition to the traditional academic centres, much of the training of doctors now occurs in a community environment. Mentoring is provided by physicians who may have less experience or resources than do those in the larger centres. Those who teach often experience lost productivity in their practice and receive little or no remuneration. This deficiency must be addressed to achieve a sustainable educational workforce.
Recommendation 5: The federal government should implement a Health Human Resources Infrastructure Fund in the amount of $1 billion over 5 years to expand health professional education and training capacity by providing funding to support the:
* Direct costs of training providers;
* Indirect or infrastructure costs associated with the educational enterprise; and
* Resources that improve Canada's data collection and management capacity in the area of health human resources.
B. Retention of Canadian Physicians
Competition for physicians is both an international and an inter-jurisdictional challenge. The new Agreement on Internal Trade within Canada and numerous bilateral agreements will no doubt ease the movement of health professionals. This may exacerbate the already difficult task of retaining physicians in underserviced areas. On the positive side, it is hoped this will facilitate the movement of physicians who provide short-term relief for physicians needing time off for continued professional development and vacation (i.e., locum tenens).
Repatriation
As the political situation and health care plans evolve south of our border, Canada should remain active in the quest to retain the health professionals we have educated and trained and make it easier for those who have emigrated to return to practice in Canada. The Conservative Party committed in the 2008 election campaign to create a repatriation fund for Canadian physicians practising abroad. The federal government should keep this important commitment.
Migration to the United States peaked in the late 1990s when Canada lost between 600 and 700 physicians per year. While some physicians returned to Canada each year, our net losses for this period were over 400 per year. Today we are enjoying small net gains each year but this may not last given the predicted shortages in the U.S. of between 80,000 and 100,000 physicians in the years ahead. We can expect U.S. recruiters to ramp up activities in Canada in the near future.
Recommendation 6: The federal government should fulfill its election promise to establish a fund of $5 million per year over four years to help Canadian physicians living abroad who wish to relocate to Canada. It is thought this initiative could bring back as many as 300 Canadian physicians over four years.
Recommendation 7: The federal government should establish a Health Professional Repatriation Program in the amount of $30 million over 3 years that would include the following:
* A secretariat within Health Canada that would include a clearinghouse function on issues associated with health care workers returning to practise in Canada.
* An ad campaign in the United States.
* A program of one-time relocation grants for returning health professionals.
Physician Health and Well Being
Ultimately, we hope that healthier physicians will create a more vibrant profession. Hopefully these healthier physicians will in turn create a more healthful professional environment that will support their ability to provide patient care of the highest quality.
Through programs and conferences, the CMA has contributed to growing efforts to reduce the stigma surrounding physician ill-health and to support a new, healthier culture for the profession. Given the myriad other issues that contribute to our doctor shortage, it is clear that Canada cannot afford to lose a single physician to ill health.
Our research shows that the most stressful aspect of the medical profession is being on call after hours. Physicians average 50 hours a week in the usual settings of office, hospital or clinic but then 70% are on call for another 30 hours per week. In small communities, physicians are often on call all the time. A quarter of all physicians face some form of mental health challenge that makes their work difficult. This is higher than the 1 in 5 Canadians that will face a mental illness over their lifetime.ii
The ongoing pressures experienced by overworked physicians can result in stress related disorders and burn-out and are frequently a precursor to more significant physical and mental health problems. If not addressed early, these conditions can lead to physicians taking prolonged periods of time off work, changing their practice patterns or leaving the practice of medicine altogether.
Prevention programs are the key to assisting physicians before they are at significant risk. The CMA visited such a program in Norway which has been shown to significantly reduce burn-out and reduce the subsequent time-off work related to stressiii. A program to enhance physician resiliency and prevent stress related disorders, based on the Norway model, could be expanded to include services for all health professionals. The potential impact would be improved provider health and morale, reduced sick days and fewer long-term leaves.
Recommendation 8: The federal government should invest in research directed at assessing the quality of work life among health workers through an interprofessional survey at a cost of $1.5 million.
Recommendation 9: The federal government should explore the feasibility of developing a 'made in Canada' Resiliency Program for Health Professionals that would include the development of a feasibility study, including a business case, and a pilot curriculum, at a cost of $500,000.
C. Innovation
While Canada must do more to increase both our supply and retention of HHR, we must also encourage innovation within our health care system to make better use of our existing health resources. Collaborative models of interprofessional care and advances in information technology hold the promise of helping create a more efficient health care system that provides higher quality care.
Physician Assistants
Increasingly physicians are working in interprofessional teams that may include professions that are relatively new to Canada's health workforce such as physician assistants (PAs). The CMA accredits PA curricula and has held two conferences to promote the use of PAs in all levels of care.
Recommendation 10: The federal government should fund a study to evaluate the impact of physician assistants on access to health care and to determine their cost effectiveness relative to other providers at cost of $150,000.
Technology to Support Health Care Delivery
Information technology will continue to create a more efficient and effective health care system. It will lead to more patient safety, more Canadians finding a physician, better care, cost avoidance such as eliminating duplicate tests and the establishment of collaborative interprofessional health care teams.
Canada's adoption of electronic medical records lags behind other OECD countries. We only spend a third of the OECD average on information technology in our hospitals. The adoption of EMRs in community settings (primary care, home care and long-term care facilities) also trails most other countries (Figure 2iv). This is not due to any general resistance by providers, but rather a combination of: a lack of evidence on how best to use electronic records to improve care delivery; a need to improve the return on investment for physicians by providing value-added solutions such as greater connectivity to lab results, drug data and colleagues; the time it takes to implement a new electronic record capability and a lack of funds to acquire new technology.
Recent investments in Canada Health Infoway (CHI) will help address some of these issues but it is estimated that for Canada to have a fully automated health care delivery system we need to invest $ 10 to $12 billionv. An overall investment of $2 billion is required to fully IT enable the community-based health care delivery sector. While Budget 2009 provided $500 million to CHI for EMRs, more is still required.
Recommendation 11: The federal government should provide a further investment of $500 million for new technology to fully enable all points of care in the community settings and an enhanced change management program to speed up EMR adoption.
Recommendation 12: The federal government should create a $10-million fund to establish an applied research program for the next five years that will provide evidence on how best to integrate information technology into the health care delivery system.
D. Conclusion
Canada's doctors believe that we can build a health care system where all Canadians can get timely access to quality health care services regardless of their ability to pay. Developing a comprehensive HHR strategy that assures an adequate supply of all health care providers, including physicians, is a pillar of achieving timely access to high quality care. Building such a system requires that we shift our attitude and move to implement new strategies, new ideas and new thinking. That new thinking must begin with a commitment to act now to address Canada's physician shortage. A promise made must be a promise fulfilled.
References
i Canada's Health Care Providers 2007, Ottawa: CIHI, 2007
ii Frank E. Canadian physicians healthy - national survey finds. A report from the 2008 International Conference on Physician Health. London, UK Nov 2008.
iii Isaksson Ro, K et al. Counselling for burnout in Norwegian doctors : One year cohort study. BMJ. November 2008. Vol 337, 1146-9.
iv * Count of 14: EMR, EMR access other doctors, outside office, patient; routine use electronic ordering tests, prescriptions, access test results, access hospital records; computer for reminders, Rx alerts, prompt test results; easy to list diagnosis; medications, patients due for care.
v Vision 2015 - Advancing Canada's Next Generation of Healthcare, Canada Health Infoway, 2008
Transforming Health Care, Securing Canada's Competitive Advantage: The Canadian Medical Association's brief to the Standing Committee on Finance's pre-budget consultation
As signs of economic recovery begin to emerge, both in Canada and globally, the Canadian Medical Association is pleased to put forward three recommendations that will initiate a needed transformation of our health care system so that it is truly patient focused and sustainable. Additionally, these measures will create 17,000 jobs and solidify Canada's health care competitive advantage. Although related to the health care sector, these recommendations are within the context of ensuring a prosperous, and sustainable economic, social and environmental future for Canada in the short, medium and long-term. Each of these three recommendations also takes into account the finance committee's questions:
1. What federal tax and program spending measures are needed to ensure prosperity and a sustainable future for Canadians from an economic, social and/or environmental perspective?
2. What federal stimulus measures have been effective and how might relatively ineffective measures be changed to ensure that they have the intended effects?
CMA research demonstrates that it is possible to maintain a universally accessible health care system without long waits for care. In 2007 alone, waiting for care in just four clinical areas cost the Canadian economy $14.8 billion. In particular, two areas require federal attention:
1. ENHANCING PATIENT ACCESS ACROSS THE CONTINUUM OF CARE
Continuing care (ie. long-term care and home care) and prescription drug coverage need urgent attention. Many Canadians do not have access to as wide a range of insured care as citizens in other highly industrialized countries.
Recommendation 1: The federal government should expand the Building Canada Plan to include 'shovel-ready' health facility construction projects including ambulatory, acute and continuing care facilities. Cost: $1.5 billion over 2 years
2. HELPING PROVIDERS HELP PATIENTS
a. Accelerating physician EMR adoption: Both national and international studies confirm that
Canada lags behind nearly every major industrialized country when it comes to health information technology. Accelerating physician EMR adoption will reduce wait times, improve quality, and improve financial accountability especially of federal dollars. Budget 2009 proposed $500 million in additional funding to Canada Health Infoway and a temporary, accelerated capital cost allowance for computer hardware. Transfer of these funds to Infoway is imperative. Together, transferring the funding to Infoway and further improving of the capital cost allowance will ensure these initiatives have the intended effects of improving EMR adoption and stimulating the economy.
b. Boosting Health Human Resources: Canada does not have enough physicians, nurses, technicians or other health care professionals to provide the care patients need. Addressing HHR shortages is critical to ensuring sustainable, accessible, responsive and high-quality health care.
Recommendation 2: The federal government should expand the 2-year time-limited accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for hardware costs related to health information technologies by extending it to five years; removing the 50% half-year rule on related software; and including electronic tools involved in connecting patient records from physician offices to laboratories and hospitals. Cost: $50 million over four years.
Recommendation 3: The federal government should fulfill its 2008 election promise, beginning in 2010, of investing $65 million in health human resources over four years to fund 50 new residencies per year; repatriate Canadian physicians living abroad; and launch pilot projects with nursing organizations to promote recruitment and retention.
1. INTRODUCTION - HEALTHY ECONOMICS: THE FOUNDATION OF FUTURE PROSPERITY
The CMA believes that by being innovative in its actions Canada can sustain a publicly funded, universal health care system. In fact, doing so provides Canadian industry with a significant competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Despite having one of the richest health care programs in the industrialized world (eighth among 28 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] countries), international benchmarking studies consistently report that the Canadian program is not performing as well as it should. The Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index ranked Canada 30th out of 30 countries in terms of value for money spent on health care in both 2008 and 2009.The CMA's recent review of several European health systems illustrates that a sustainable, patient-centred approach to health care is possible on a system-wide level without compromising founding principles such as universality, and without causing financial difficulty for the country or its citizens. However, getting there will require transformational change to refocus our system.
The Canadian Medical Association's 2010 pre-budget submission puts forward three recommendations in the areas of health care infrastructure, health human resources (HHR) and electronic medical records (EMRs).1 These three affordable, strategic initiatives fall within the jurisdiction of the federal government and recognize both the ongoing and promising economic recovery and the current fiscal capacity of the federal government. CMA's recommendations help to chart a course toward a prosperous, and sustainable economic, social and environmental future for Canada in the short, medium and long terms. These proposals will kickstart a transformation of the health care system and create over 17,000 jobs that will ensure a competitive economic foundation for the future.
Based on CMA's research, transforming Canada's health care system to better meet the needs of Canadians hinges on five directions for a reorientation of the system:
1. Building a culture of patient-centred care;
2. Incentives for enhancing access and improving quality of care;
3. Enhancing patient access across the continuum of care;
4. Helping providers help patients;
5. Building accountability/responsibility at all levels.
While each of the five directions is important to reorienting the system, points 3 and 4 are directly relevant to the Finance Committee's deliberations.
2. ENHANCING PATIENT ACCESS ACROSS THE CONTINUUM OF CARE
While all elements of the continuum of care are important, the CMA believes that continuing care (long-term care and home care) and prescription drug coverage need urgent attention. Many Canadians do not have access to as wide a range of insured care as citizens in other highly industrialized countries. In fact, many of these other industrialized countries count access to prescription drugs and home care/long-term care among their basic insured services.
a. Continuing care: Augmenting the Building Canada Plan to include health care infrastructure
Recommendation 1: The federal government should expand the Building Canadai Plan to include 'shovel-ready' health facility construction projects including ambulatory, acute and continuing care facilities. Cost: $1.5 billion over two years
Continuing care in Canada faces three key challenges: capacity and access; informal caregiver support and long-term care funding. At 91%, Canada has the highest hospital occupancy rate in the OECD.ii Roughly 25-30% of hospital acute care beds are occupied by patients who do not require hospital or medical care but rather need 24-hour supervised care. Scarce long-term care facilities and home-care services dictate that patients remain in hospital, delaying hospitals from performing elective surgeries and restricting the movement of other patients from the emergency room to acute care wards. Much of the burden of continuing care falls on informal (unpaid) caregivers who need to be better supported. Statistics Canada reported that in 2007 about 2.7 million Canadians aged 45 and over, or approximately one-fifth of the total in this age group, provided some form of unpaid care to seniors (people 65 years of age or older) who had long-term health problems iiiIt seems unlikely that future requirements for long-term care can be funded on the same "pay-as-you-go" basis as other health expenditures.
The seven-year, $33-billion Building Canada Plan announced in Budget 2007 and augmented in Budget 2009, could better support a smart economic recovery and the health needs of Canadians if it were to be expanded to include health facility construction.iv Federal investment in hospital and health facility construction will create 16,500 jobs over a two-year period and 11,000 jobs in 2010 alone. (Appendix: Table 1).
Although CMA's $1.5 billion recommendation does not eliminate the entire health-facility infrastructure gap in Canada, estimated at over $20 billionv, it does provide additional stimulus aimed at shovel-ready projects. It also better prepares our health system to deal with the needs of an aging population. Federal government investment in health infrastructure has two important precedents - the first in 1948 (Hospital Construction Grants Program) and the second in 1966 (Health Resources Fund Act). Infrastructure funding should be directed toward projects that deliver long-term value and enhance Canadians' lives.
b. Prescription drugs: 3.5 million Canadians underinsured
Prescription drugs represent the fastest growing item in the health budget, and the second largest category of health expenditure. More than 3.5 million Canadians have no prescription drug coverage or are underinsured against high prescription drug costs. In 2006 almost one in 10 (8%) of Canadian households spent more than 3% of their after-tax income on prescription drugs; and almost one in 25 (3.8%) spent more than 5%. It is estimated that less than one-half of prescription drug costs were publicly paid for in 2008. Canada must strive for a program of comprehensive pharmaceutical coverage that is universal and effectively pools risks across individuals and public and private plans throughout Canada.
3. HELPING PROVIDERS HELP PATIENTS
Canada's health care workforce needs more people and more tools to care for Canadians.
a. Accelerating physician EMR adoption
Recommendation 2: The federal government should expand the 2-year, time-limited accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for hardware costs related to health information technologies by extending it to 5-years; removing the 50% half-year rule on related software; and including electronic tools involved in connecting patient records from physician offices to laboratories and hospitals. Cost: $50 million over four years.
Both national and international studies confirm that Canada lags behind nearly every major industrialized country when it comes to health information technology (see Figure 1 and Figure 22). The impact of this underinvestment is longer wait times, reduced quality, and a severe lack of financial accountability, especially of federal dollars.
The Conference Board of Canadavi, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) vii, the World Health Organizationviii, the Commonwealth Fundix, and the Frontier Centre for Public Policyx all rate Canada's health care system poorly in terms of "value for money" as well as efficiency.
The CMA applauds the temporary 100% Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) rate for computer hardware and systems software acquired after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2011 that was proposed in Budget 2009. The measure will provide stimulus by helping businesses to increase or accelerate investment in computers. It will also help boost Canada's productivity through the faster adoption of newer technology. However, for this initiative to provide the greatest benefit, the 100% CCA rate should be extended to five years and expanded to include related EMR software. The benefits of EMR investments are clear. International strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton found the benefits of an interconnected Electronic Health Record (EHR) in Canada could save the health system $6.1 billionxi a year.
The CMA's recommendation of delivering incentives through the tax system to adopt EMRs is a bottom-up approach that has gained widespread support. John Halamka, the chief information officer at Harvard Medical School, thinks that reformers need to take a bottom-up approach and listen to both doctors and patients. Studies showxiithat most of the benefits of EMRs flow to the payer. Incentives for hardware, software and as importantly the time that it takes to implement these e-systems must be taken into account and incented. The urgency for e-health is being recognized in the United States and needs to be in Canada.
Beyond tax incentives, Budget 2009 also provided Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) with $500 million to support the goal of having 50 % of Canadians with an electronic health record by 2010. As of March 31, 2009, Infoway and its partners had put in place an electronic health record for 17% of the population. Budget 2009 funding will allow Infoway to extend EHRs to 38% of the population by March 31, 2010. xiii This investment will not only enhance the safety, quality and efficiency of the health care system, but will also result in a significant positive contribution to Canada's economy, including the creation of thousands of sustainable, knowledge-based jobs throughout Canadaxiv. Infoway has not yet received this funding and the CMA strongly encourages the federal government to transfer the funds promised in Budget 2009 as soon as possible.
b. Boosting Health Human Resources
Recommendation 3: The federal government should fulfill its 2008 election promisexv, beginning in 2010, of investing $65 million in health human resources over four years to fund 50 new residencies per year; repatriate Canadian physicians living abroad; and launch pilot projects with nursing organizations to promote recruitment and retention.
Canada does not have enough physicians, nurses, technicians or other health care professionals to provide the care patients need. Addressing health workforce shortages is critical to ensuring sustainable, accessible, responsive and high-quality health care across the nation. Canada has suffered from a significant physician shortage since the mid-1990s. Nationally, we rank 26th of 30 OECD member countries in physician-to-population ratio (see Figure 3). The lack of physicians in Canada puts the system under pressure and the impact of this is being felt by patients across the country. Currently, approximately five million Canadians do not have a family physician. In 2008, a study commissioned by the CMA found that the Canadian economy lost $14.8 billion as a result of excessive wait times for just four procedures: joint replacements, MRIs, coronary artery bypass surgery and cataract surgery.
As health care reform plans evolve south of our border, Canada should be proactive in order to retain the health professionals we have educated and trained and make it easier for those who have emigrated to return to practice in Canada. In the 2008 federal election, most parties recognized the urgency of HHR shortages and committed to address the situation. The Conservative Party committed to fund additional medical residency positions, create a repatriation fund for Canadian physicians practising abroad and fund nursing recruitment and retention pilot projects. It is thought this repatriation program could bring back as many as 300 Canadian physicians over four years. The federal government should keep this important commitment. Migration to the United States peaked in the late 1990s when Canada lost between 600 and 700 physicians per year. While some physicians returned to Canada each year, our net losses for this period were over 400 per year. Today we are enjoying small net annual gains but this may not last. With predicted shortages in the U.S. of between 80,000 and 100,000 physicians in the years ahead, we can expect U.S. recruiters to ramp up activities in Canada soon.
4. CONCLUSION
The emerging economic recovery offers an excellent opportunity for the federal government to create a more patient-focused and sustainable health care system. Enhancing patient access across the continuum of care by bolstering the Building Canada infrastructure plan and helping providers help patients by enhancing EMR tax incentives and addressing health workforce shortages are important first steps in transforming our health care system. Looking ahead, it will be important to continue to honour the financial transfers of the 2004 Health Care Accord, including the annual 6% escalator, through to 2014. Past cuts to health care funding at all levels have had significant negative effects that continue to be felt to this day. Now is the time to begin thinking ahead to the fiscal needs of the health care system in the post-2014 era.
Appendix Table 1
[For correct dispaly of table information, see PDF]
References
1 A full schedule of the recommended federal investments as well as their job creation potential is included at the end of the document in the Appendix, Table 1.
2 14 functions are: EMR, EMR access, access other doctors, outside office, patient: routine use, electronic ordering tests, prescriptions, access test results, access hospital records, computer for reminders, Rx alerts, prompt test results; easy to list diagnosis, medications, patients due for care.
i Building Canada Plan., Announced in Budget 2007, the seven-year, $33-billion Building Canada plan consists of a suite of programs to meet the varying needs of infrastructure projects across Canada.
See page 142 of the 2009 Federal Budget. www.budget.gc.ca/2009/pdf/budget-planbugetaire-eng.pdf
ii Hospital Occupancy Rates. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2008). OECD Health.
Data 2007. Version 07/18/2007. CD-ROM. Paris: OECD.
iii.Cranswick, Kelly, Donna Dosman. "Eldercare: What we Know Today" Canadian Social Trends.No. 86. Statistics Canada
iv Building Canada Plan, Federal Budget 2009 page 142. .
www.budget.gc.ca/2009/pdf/budget-planbugetaire-eng.pdf
v This estimate is based on survey work in a forthcoming publication commissioned by the Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations.
vi How Canada Performs 2008: A Report Card on Canada, The Conference Board of Canada
see: http://sso.conferenceboard.ca/HCP/overview/health-overview.aspx
vii Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2007). OECD Health
Data 2007. Version 07/18/2007. CD-ROM. Paris: OECD.
viii World Health Organization [WHO] (2007). World Health Statistics 2007. see: http://www.who.
ix Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care May 15, 2007 (updated May 16, 2007)
Volume 59
Authors: Karen Davis, Ph.D., Cathy Schoen, M.S., Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., M.P.H., Michelle M. Doty, Ph.D., M.P.H., Alyssa L. Holmgren, M.P.A., Jennifer L. Kriss, and Katherine K. Shea
Editor(s):Deborah Lorber see: www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=482678
x Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index 2008, Health Consumer Powerhouse, Frontier Centre for Public Policy, FC Policy Series No. 38 see:www.fcpp.org/pdf/ECHCI2008finalJanuary202008.pdf
xi Booz, Allan, Hamilton Study, Pan-Canadian Electronic Health Record, Canada's Health Infoway's 10-Year Investment Strategy, March 2005-09-06.
xii Although the savings would accrue to different stakeholders, in the long run they should accrue to payers. If we allocate the savings using the current level of spending from the National Health Accounts (kept by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Medicare would receive about $23 billion of the potential savings per year, and private payers would receive $31 billion per year. Thus, both have a strong incentive to encourage the adoption of EMR systems. Providers face limited incentives to purchase EMRs because their investment typically translates into revenue losses for them and health care spending savings for payers. From: Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, And Costs, by Richard Hillestad, James Bigelow, Anthony Bower, Federico Girosi, Robin Meili, Richard Scoville and Roger Taylor, Health Affairs, 24, no. 5 (2005): 1103-1117
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/24/5/1103#R14
xiii Corporate Business Plan 2009/2010, Canada Health Infoway, "Anticipated Progress to March 31, 2010" page 7 see:www2.infoway-inforoute.ca/Documents/bp/Business_Plan_2009-2010_en.pdf
xiv Federal Budget 2009 page 152. see: www.budget.gc.ca/2009/pdf/budget-planbugetaire-eng.pdf
xv Health Care Certainty for Canadian Families, the Conservative Party of Canada, backgrounder 10/08/08.
See: http://www.conservative.ca/?section_id=1091§ion_copy_id=107023&language_id=0
It is my pleasure to address the committee as part of its monitoring of the situation related to the supply of medical isotopes. While I am not an expert in nuclear medicine, I do refer patients for diagnostic and treatment services that require the use of medical isotopes.
First and foremost, I want to note that the CMA is proud of the efforts and dedication of health care providers from across the country who have stepped up to help meet patients' needs during this ongoing, stressful and demanding time.
Through their concerted efforts, and those of the industry and governments, the system appears to be "coping." Patients are receiving needed diagnostic and treatment services, either through radiopharmaceutical models or their alternatives.
However, there are reports of sporadic adverse events, as has been the case since the beginning of this situation. These include delays of 48-72 hours and suboptimal imaging due to the extensive use of thallium-201 rather than technetium-99m, which is in short supply.
The CMA and representatives from the nuclear medical community continue to work with Health Canada to mitigate the impact of the shortage of medical isotopes.
Scheduling appropriate care commensurate with the expected supply of isotopes has been aided by the efforts of Lantheus and Covidien, suppliers of generators and radiopharmaceuticals, who regularly share vital production information with the nuclear medical community. This has improved communications and allowed for the better predictability of supply than had been the case last May and June.
Lest you interpret my comments to mean "all is well", let me be clear: Much is being done, but the current situation is neither optimal nor sustainable and there appears to be no long term plan.
Canada's physicians are concerned about the toll the current shortage of isotopes is taking on the health care system as a whole. In particular, the resulting increased demand on resources - both human and financial - and especially now in the midst of a pandemic, is not sustainable.
Therefore, we have called upon governments to invest in a five-year action plan, that includes an emergency fund, to increase the use of positron emission technology and the production of associated radiopharmaceuticals across Canada.
At our annual meeting this August, Canada's physicians expressed their concerns by passing a series of motions calling for government action. This action included demands that the federal government:
* retain Canada's leadership and ability to produce and export medical isotopes, and reconsider its decision to withdraw from their production;
* appoint an international independent expert panel to assess thoroughly the decision to abandon the MAPLE I & II nuclear reactors at Chalk River: and
* release promptly the conclusions and recommendations of the panel to the public.
Our delegates also demanded that the federal government conduct open, meaningful and ongoing consultations with nuclear medicine physicians and their respective national associations on any and all federal decisions directly affecting the supply of medical isotopes. Concern was expressed that decisions have been, and will continue to be, made for political and financial expediency without taking into account medical ramifications of those decisions.
We appreciated having the opportunity to participate in discussions with the Expert Review Panel on Medical Isotope appointed by the Minister of Natural Resources. While it is anticipated the panel will report to the Minister by the end of this month, we do not know when that report will be made public and how long it will take to move recommendations to action.
Canadian physicians also urge the federal government to invest immediately in research in basic and clinical science to find viable alternative solutions to the production and use of technetium-99m. The announcement of $6 million for research into alternatives to medical isotopes through a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is a good start. We must emphasize that bench to bedside research is critical - there must be a clinical translation of new technology to the provision of care.
To conclude, the CMA remains concerned about health care providers' and the health care system's ability to sustain the current shortage; Canada's ability to ensure a long-term stable and predictable supply of medically necessary isotopes and our lack of contingency planning for the next shortage.
The CMA will continue to work with all involved to ensure Canadians have access to the best possible care and treatment.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, affiliates and associates, will communicate to governments that insufficient access to long-term care at all ages is an obstacle to improving the health care system.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, affiliates and associates, will communicate to governments that insufficient access to long-term care at all ages is an obstacle to improving the health care system.
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The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, affiliates and associates, will communicate to governments that insufficient access to long-term care at all ages is an obstacle to improving the health care system.
The Canadian Medical Association and provincial/territorial medical associations call on governments to ensure completion of an evaluation of the impact of health information technology that considers the level of functionality and assesses its effect on patient and provider experience of care, population health and per capita costs.
The Canadian Medical Association and provincial/territorial medical associations call on governments to ensure completion of an evaluation of the impact of health information technology that considers the level of functionality and assesses its effect on patient and provider experience of care, population health and per capita costs.
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The Canadian Medical Association and provincial/territorial medical associations call on governments to ensure completion of an evaluation of the impact of health information technology that considers the level of functionality and assesses its effect on patient and provider experience of care, population health and per capita costs.
The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to define patient-focused funding in the Canadian context before proposing a methodology for implementation.
The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to define patient-focused funding in the Canadian context before proposing a methodology for implementation.
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The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to define patient-focused funding in the Canadian context before proposing a methodology for implementation.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, calls on governments and health authorities to examine internal market mechanisms, which could include a role for the private sector, in the delivery of publicly funded health care in Canada.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, calls on governments and health authorities to examine internal market mechanisms, which could include a role for the private sector, in the delivery of publicly funded health care in Canada.
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The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations, calls on governments and health authorities to examine internal market mechanisms, which could include a role for the private sector, in the delivery of publicly funded health care in Canada.
The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to develop sustainable funding models for collaborative care in community-based practice.
The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to develop sustainable funding models for collaborative care in community-based practice.
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The Canadian Medical Association will work with provincial/territorial medical associations to develop sustainable funding models for collaborative care in community-based practice.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations and affiliates, calls upon governments to implement a routine deafness-screening program for newborns.
The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations and affiliates, calls upon governments to implement a routine deafness-screening program for newborns.
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The Canadian Medical Association, in collaboration with provincial/territorial medical associations and affiliates, calls upon governments to implement a routine deafness-screening program for newborns.
