Canada’s healthcare system is under extreme stress. Access, quality of care, and costs are issues that impact all citizens, no matter what part of the nation they reside in. A recent webcast panel discussion titled “Election 2025: Steps to heal Canada’s health care system,” hosted by The Globe and Mail, brought together healthcare experts and professionals to address these pressing issues and propose potential solutions.
Friendly, one of the key voices in this evolving discussion, pointed to the University Health Network (UHN) as a leading case in point. He especially underscored how UHN rapidly pivoted its digital care and virtual care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He shared UHN’s phenomenal journey to scale up their virtual visits—from 200 to an astounding 11,000 a month! This demonstrates the technology’s value as a tool to expand patient access to care and deliver care more efficiently. Still, for all this progress, the Canadian health system remains well behind in its communications, relying on such antique methods as fax machines. This reliance points to a growing need for modernization.
Healthcare in Canada remains a complex challenge. The quality of work-life for our healthcare workers is in crisis. Access to services is maxed out and increasing costs just exacerbate the crisis. On behalf of the respondents, Dr. Reimer highlighted this survey’s findings of 10,000 Canadians placing access to care as their primary concern. Alarmingly, they noted that this access should not be contingent upon an individual’s ability to pay, highlighting an ongoing equity issue within the healthcare landscape.
The Canada’s healthcare system was largely built in the 1950s and 1960s. This thirty-year-old, archaic structure has made it ill-equipped to respond to the needs of today. Looking ahead, over the last 30 years, Dr. Kiran knew that physician training needed improvement. He proposed that through this renewed commitment to education, we can dramatically improve the quality of care delivered throughout the nation.
The panelists unanimously resonated with the need for accountability on health care access. They demanded a consistent, nationally coordinated strategy, so that all Canadians could expect at least a baseline level of access, no matter where they live. Dr. Smith was a fierce proponent for reducing regulatory burden. This step would significantly enlarge the bench of internationally trained physicians available at home and abroad to expand the workforce and improve patient care.
In response, the government has introduced legislation called Bill 72. This legislation is an important step for ensuring interoperability among our healthcare systems. It’s hard to know yet how effective this legislation will be. In Ontario alone there are an estimated 30 different electronic medical records systems in use, most of which do not allow any data sharing to occur between them.
Moreover, as Dr. Kiran pointed out, 35% of the people who want to come work in the Canadian healthcare system are Canadian expats. This statistic underscores the potential for attracting skilled professionals back to Canada, which could alleviate some pressures on an overstretched system.
The panel discussion underscored a consensus among healthcare experts that significant reforms are necessary for Canada’s health system to meet modern demands effectively. So, let’s work on fixing them—together. By laying out a smart, strategic vision for change, we can build a more equitable and effective healthcare system.
