‘Crisis’ in health care worsening, CMA boss declares

With the premiers EDMONTON set to meet in Edmonton this week, the Canadian Medical Association is pushing for national health guidelines.

That national vision is necessary to stave off further degradation in the quality of Canada’s health care, said CMA president Dr. Granger Avery.

Canadian health care has been steadily going downhill for the past 30 years. It’s currently ranked 10th out of 11 similar public systems around the developed world.

Yet this country spends the sixth-highest amount of money.

In short, said Avery, it is “an expensive system that doesn’t actually give people what they need.”

In Avery’s view, Canadian health care is now at a crossroads — either it can continue along the path it’s on and keep going downhill, or governments can come together to institute a national set of guidelines, and turn a corner.

“Not only is this really important, but it is actually an opportunity for Canada to stand out in the world and say, ‘Hey, we can figure this out, and if you want, you can copy what we’re doing here,’ ” he said.

With the federal government missing numerous opportunities to implement national standards over the years, the CMA will push hard for change in Edmonton this week at the Council of the Federation meetings.

Health care raises its head at the national event every year.

But Avery is hopeful 2017 will mark a turning point.

There are so many crises in the system right now, he said, that avoidance is no longer tenable.

As a small sample, Avery lists long surgery wait times, scores of Canadians without a general practitioner, seniors who can’t afford the drugs they need, the opioid crisis, and myriad issues with Indigenous health.

Those individual problems are relatively simple to wrap one’s head around, but looking at systemic change? That’s daunting.

“That piece, that daunting task, revolves around how we make the decisions (and) ... the actual structure of decision making is the most important thing,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that it’s a crisis, and the reason governments haven’t really addressed this properly is because of the size of it.”

Avery wants government leaders to come together at the Council of the Federation meetings this week and start nailing down an agreement across the country to address standards, the way health care is envisioned and designed, and management oversight.

If that change doesn’t happen, he envisages a dark future for public health care.

“I don’t want to be Chicken Little here, but we are actually getting worse, not better, and that’s despite spending all of this money,” he said.