In 2014, healthcare in Canada is going to change. The original Canada Health Accord, a federal, provincial and territorial funding agreement on healthcare priorities, is near the end of its 10-year commitment. Conversations about future investments and priorities for healthcare are underway among public servants, researchers, economists and consultants as governments prepare for the negotiations that will renew the funding transfer agreement that impacts every Canadian.

All Canadians deserve an opportunity to speak out on the priorities for our healthcare system over the next 10 years but it appears that only consultants, academics, researchers and economists are the ones that governments are listening to. Through their national organizations, doctors and nurses also get their views considered, and hospital administrators sit at the same table as public servants when the final decisions on investment priorities are made.
 

Where is the voice of patients and caregivers in this important conversation?

At the Canadian Patient Coalition’s First Canadian Patient Summit, six key issues emerged:

1. Patients and caregivers feel excluded from decisions being made around health policy and service delivery. We believe a strong, united patient and caregiver voice is needed in the upcoming discussions that will affect us all.
2. Patients in rural, remote and northern communities—and particularly First Nations communities—cannot access healthcare services and information without travelling long distances or using arms-length technology (e.g. Telehealth). Better access is needed to culturally, linguistically and physically appropriate healthcare information and services.
3. Affordability is an issue related not only to the cost of medications, devices and supplies, but also to other things required to live well. For example, regular foot exams or appropriate foot care or shoes were said to be too costly by some patients with diabetes who, as a result, live at high risk of foot ulcers and potential limb amputation. Other patients and caregivers identified the high cost of healthy food as a barrier to living well with their medical conditions.
4. Finding specialists or appropriate healthcare professionals, treatment centres or medical services is a challenge for many. In some parts of Canada, there is a doctor or nurse shortage. In other communities, there are simply no medical specialists. Cancer care centres or wound care clinics and the expertise that clusters around them are entirely absent.
5. The healthcare system a challenge to navigate. Frequent changes to programs and services— as well as a lack of awareness of how to access government-funded programs or services— were identified as significant barriers to living well with their medical condition.
6. Patients and caregivers felt it was vital that every patient in Canada have a single medical or health record to ensure that every healthcare professional has the information he/she needs.

This section is under construction. Please check regularly for updates..