AS CANADA ENTERS THE FOURTH WAVE OF COVID-19, NEW POLLING SHOWS THAT 81 PER CENT OF CANADIANS BELIEVE THE PANDEMIC HAS CHANGED FOREVER THE DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY.
Transition to digital medicine accelerated
As parts of Canada enter the fourth wave, with surgery cancellations in Alberta and hospitals filling up, new polling from KPMG shows that 81 per cent Canadians believe the pandemic has changed forever the delivery of health care in this country.
It has accelerated, says Aaron Berk, with KPMG’S health and life sciences, the transition between digital and in-person medicine, a shift that’s notable because 56 per cent of people said they felt their doctor was doing virtual health care effectively.
“I think as we see that shift from patients to well-informed health consumers, we do need to think about the experiences with their care, almost like a retailer does in creating experiences with their customers,” Berk said.
For many Canadians, their contact with the health-care system over the past year has been via telephone or video conferencing. While 56 per cent of Canadians say their doctor is doing a good job at this, there’s a fairly wide variation among provinces and demographics, with just 38 per cent of Black Canadians, Indigenous people and people of colour, saying their doctor is delivering this service effectively.
Sixty-three per cent of British Columbians say they’re doing it effectively, compared to just 48 per cent of Albertans, the lowest in the country, 55 per cent of those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 50 per cent in Quebec, 56 per cent in Atlantic Canada and 66 per cent in Ontario.
The poorest Canadians report lowest levels of satisfaction, with 48 per cent those making less than $30,000 saying their doctor is doing it effectively, compared to 59 per cent of those making more than $100,000.
“As this becomes more refined, and as people are able to reflect on and continuously improve on how they integrate virtual care into their practice, we’ll likely see an uptick in ... the uptake of people wanting virtual care,” said Berk.
The polling shows a worrisome statistic: some twothirds of Canadians haven’t seen their doctor, or saw them less frequently, over the course of the pandemic, whether that’s in person or by virtual medicine.
Across Canada, 31 per cent of Canadians didn’t see their doctor at all. The rate is the highest in Quebec and Ontario, where 36 per cent didn’t see them at all, compared to Alberta (20 per cent) and British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan (25 per cent) and Atlantic Canada at 28 per cent.
“What might that mean in the months and years ahead, for those people who are not going to the family doctor?” said Berk.
Seventy-three per cent of Ontarians said they had seen their doctor less often or not at all — the highest rate in the country. That compares to Atlantic Canada, where just 53 per cent said they’d seen them less often or not at all.
These figures are relatively stable across demographics and age, although Black, Indigenous and people of colour, at 71 per cent, were the most likely to have seen their doctor less or not at all; men, at 69 per cent, were slightly more likely to have not seen their doctor or seen them less, than women, where the percentage is 64 per cent.
Of the 85 per cent of Canadians who said they have a family physician, just 26 per cent were “very satisfied” with their experience of seeing or talking to them during the pandemic; the rate is lowest in B.C., at 18 per cent, and highest in Atlantic Canada, at 35 per cent.
The rates of those who say they are “very unsatisfied” is highest in Quebec, at 15 per cent, followed by Alberta at 14 per cent, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada at 12 per cent, Ontario at 10 per cent and Saskatchewan and Manitoba at eight per cent.
Older Canadians were more likely to be very satisfied with their visit, at 33 per cent, compared to 20 per cent of those between 18 and 24, and 21 per cent between 25 and 34.
“Our population has become much more demanding and savvy about health care in general, and want choices, want the ability to be treated like a consumer,” said Berk. “It’s a slightly different shift in the mindset that might be where we take this in future.”
When it came to access, just seven per cent of Canadians got an appointment within 24 hours, a rate that was highest in Ontario, at 10 per cent, and lowest in Quebec, at two per cent, while B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba and Atlantic Canada fell at five per cent, with Alberta taking the middle position at seven per cent.
But 32 per cent got in within 24 to 72 hours, a rate that’s highest in Ontario at 39 per cent and lowest in Atlantic Canada at 19 per cent and Quebec at 23 per cent. Thirty-two per cent of Atlantic Canadians had to wait more than a week, as did 46 per cent of Quebecers, compared to just 19 per cent in Ontario, 18 per cent in Alberta and 22 per cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The poll surveyed 2,000 Canadians older than 18 between June 14 and 17, using Delvinia’s Asking Canadians panel, using its “methodify” research panel. The margin of error is +/- two percentage points.
OUR POPULATION HAS BECOME MUCH MORE DEMANDING