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Ok. I admit it. I’m scared. But not because we’re facing a huge challenge in our healthcare system – we’ve seen this coming for years. No, I’m scared because we’re looking for scapegoats. Hopefully we begin to see a rapid change in both Canadians' mentality towards heathcare and in our practice of it.
Recent health headlines such as: Most Canadians fear for health system: report card, Canadians brace for higher health costs: poll and Survey finds most fear boomers will cripple health-care system scream warnings about Canadian’s fear that boomers will cripple our healthcare system over the next several years; and because aging seniors cannot afford care the result will be a toxic increase in tax hikes that our younger generations will have to endure.
According to an Ipsos Reid survey released this week by the Canadian Medical Association:
· Four out of five Canadians believe that the demands placed on the health system by aging Baby Boomers will result in reduced access and lower quality care
· 75 per cent of respondents fear that growing health costs will result in significant tax hikes
· And there is also strong support for user fees and having wealthy Canadians pay more out-of-pocket to help ease the burden of caring for seniors
· Younger Canadians are willing to adapt to the pressures on the system by buying private health insurance to supplement publicly provided care
Obviously we are worried – and rightfully so. But I would challenge the concept that one generation of individuals is going to be totally responsible for decimating our healthcare system.
Instead of looking for places to lay blame perhaps we should be looking at the failures in the system as a whole – not just those who use it. According to a wonderfully written essay titled, “Spare the Policy, Spoil the Profession” by Steven Lewis (www.longwoods.com) “we owe the doctors of Canada a serious apology for spoiling a noble profession. By kowtowing to organized medicine, we end up with collective agreements and policies that entrench the status quo and keep Canadian healthcare in the dark ages.”
Lewis goes on to make another truly poignant observation: “We should apologize for letting doctors practice in the 21st century with the tools of Bob Cratchit. Government’s sign collective agreements that condone quill pen medicine – we’re at the bottom of the G7 pack in the adoption of the electronic medical record. Quality improvement tools and techniques are optional. There is no obligation to undergo practice profiling and recertification. Most doctors have no clue about the quality and effectiveness of what they deliver – and those who think they do are almost certainly wrong. The inevitable results: medical practice harms 10% of patients in hospitals; there is routine prescribing of dangerous dosages and drug combinations to the elderly; there is widespread failure to diagnose and effectively manage the most common and straightforward chronic diseases; primary healthcare patients get all of the evidence-based care they need only about half the time; and the list goes on.”
Clearly change needs to happen quickly within the system in order for care to improve. We need to make significant investments in health information technologies to help reduce errors, improve the way information is used and to link care across the continuum. There must be a focus on implementing ePrescribing tools to reduce drug errors and interactions and we must collectively find ways to ensure all Canadians have affordable access to the medications they need.
All of us, at one time or another, will need to use our healthcare system – not just the Boomers. Governments, healthcare providers, clinicians and the private sector need to work together to find solutions to ensure the delivery of safe, high quality care now and for generations to come.
