Ottawa pledging $2B for pandemic surgery delays, warn universal health care ‘at risk’
Global News
Duclos said delays in surgeries, diagnostics and treatments existed before the pandemic but that after five successive waves of COVID-19, provincial health systems are struggling.
Canada’s universal health-care system is “at risk” amid unprecedented pressures exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, says the country’s health minister.
As a result, Ottawa is pledging an additional $2 billion in top-up health transfers to the provinces in a bid to help them resolve backlogs in surgeries, Jean-Yves Duclos announced on Friday.
“Two years after the beginning of the worst pandemic the world has known in over a century, we need to acknowledge that if we do not act quickly and decisively, the long term survival of the universal and public health system Canadians cherish is at risk,” said Duclos.
Duclos said delays in surgeries, diagnostics and treatments existed before the pandemic but that after five successive waves of COVID-19 in the span of two years, provincial health systems are struggling.
The transfer comes in addition to the $4-billion top-up provided to the provinces in March 2021.
More to come.
