Mental health care access, electronic options, surgical backlogs: Report lays out health-care overhaul priorities
CTV
The Canadian Institute for Health Information has released a new report which lays out the key areas that governments need to focus on in order to improve struggling health-care systems, including collecting more comprehensive data, addressing surgical backlogs, retaining workers and improving mental health care access.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has released a new report, which lays out the key areas that governments need to focus on in order to improve struggling health-care systems.
The report is the result of an agreement between the federal, provincial and territorial governments to investigate where they can improve health care can be improved in Canada.
Governments, with the exception of Quebec, agreed to work with CIHI to collect and share their health-care data. CIHI plans to share the results publicly every year, making this report the first of an annual series.
This first report, which focuses on giving a snapshot of the current landscape of Canadian health care, found that surgeries dropped by 13 per cent during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels and that Canada is underutilizing the potential of electronic tools, with fewer than 40 per cent of Canadians reporting that they've accessed their health information online before.
"We know that there are gaps in Canada's health-care systems, but there are also improvements happening every day," Kathleen Morris, vice-president of research and analysis at CIHI, said in a press release.
"This report provides a look at challenges that exist around the country. Over the coming years, transparent public reporting using comparable data from modernized health systems will be an important aspect of the improvement effort. It's an important step in working with all levels of government as they work to improve health services for Canadians."
Although Canada's universal health-care system has long been a source of national pride, the COVID-19 pandemic placed huge strain on the nation's health-care services, causing issues that we are still grappling with today. Massive worker burnout has caused many to leave the profession, others are struggling without proper mental health supports, surgery delays are exacerbating backlogs and hospitals are struggling with being over capacity.