All hands on deck for the future of health care

In my view, there is no better example of the disconnect between the Ottawa bubble and the electorate than the dearth of thoughtful urgent debate on the state of health care in Canada. It is consistently the No. 1 concern at doorsteps in my home province of Prince Edward Island, as it is across Canada, and rightfully so. Voters are acutely aware of the challenges facing the health workforce, and don’t really care which level of government meets them. As I write this opinion piece, one of the unions representing health-care workers on Prince Edward Island is moving to conciliation to negotiate a new collective agreement with the province. Prince Edward Island currently ranks last in access to health care among the provinces, largely due to workforce shortages to meet the need of Islanders. Health workers play a vital role in our communities, and we have an obligation to lean in and understand the challenges they face as they support us with care and compassion. This workforce, which includes everyone from physicians and nurses to orderlies and pharmacists is currently facing a high volume of demands on care. This, alongside the doubling of the number of vacancies from the start of the pandemic to 120,140 in 2022-23, has dramatically increased the workload and burnout in the sector. To further exacerbate matters, many have reported feeling unsafe as they carry out their duties. As decision-makers, it is our responsibility to listen to the concerns of these workers, and to develop solutions with them, not for them. One major gap that health providers have identified in testimony before the House Health Committee has been the lack of high-quality, comparable data across provinces and territories. The lack of information means that we do not have a pan-Canadian snapshot of the situation on the ground, and are thus unable to develop solutions that work in every jurisdiction. Last year, the federal government launched its Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians plan, committing $200-billion over 10 years in federal funding. The goal is to expand access to family health services, support health workers, reduce backlogs, improve access to mental health and addictions supports, and modernize the health-care system with standardized tools. As part of this plan, we signed bilateral agreements with every single province and territory, which include provisions for data collection and sharing between provincial, territorial, and federal governments. This is essential to the development of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, which aims to modernize public health data, expand access to health services, and support health workers. This strategy will, in turn, inform the work of Health Workforce Canada, an independent organization set up by Health Canada bringing health workforce experts and other health workers to strengthen health workforce data and planning in this country. The work being done by these three initiatives is essential in both addressing the most pressing health workforce challenges and long-term planning. While the federal government is uniquely situated for large-scale, sustainable planning and strategizing for health care, provinces and territories have an essential role to play, which is reflected in the bilateral agreements. Indeed, as the governments with the jurisdiction over health-care delivery and workforce management, provincial and territorial governments must identify opportunities for improvements within their regions. From optimizing the education and training of future health workers, to streamlining the recognition of foreign credentials of health workers and revamping administrative processes, they can—and must—alleviate the pressures on the health-care delivery system. Legislative frameworks and policies can be amended to reduce bottlenecks, and ensure that the health-care system is evolving to meet the challenges and opportunities of a changing society. This includes optimizing scopes of work, providing digital and administrative tools, and supporting a holistic model of care delivery. An example of such good practice can be found in Atlantic Canada. In 2023, the four Atlantic provinces created an Atlantic physician registry, allowing doctors to work anywhere in the region without additional licensing requirements. This increased the mobility of physicians in the region with minimal paperwork, enhancing residents’ access to care. Such innovation must be encouraged and expanded. In my previous op-ed, I stressed the importance of a comprehensive, collaborative, and thoughtful approach to resolve the complex challenges within healthcare. This has been our government’s approach so far, and we will continue to favour solutions over slogans to meet the needs of Canadians. Liberal MP Sean Casey, who represents Charlottetown, P.E.I., is chair of the House Health Committee, and a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. The Hill Times