Monday, August 16, 2004
Canadians growing restless with health care system
[Sheryl Ubelacker, "Confidence in health system declines," Canoe, 16 August 2004.]
Just as some Americans are calling for an inreased government role in health care, our neighbors to the north are blaming government for their system's woes:
TORONTO - A growing number of Canadians are giving the country's health care system a mediocre or failing grade, a report card by the organization representing Canada's doctors suggests.
"The report card shows that things are getting worse," said Dr. Sunil Patel, president of the Canadian Medical Association, which released the national poll to coincide with its annual meeting this week in Toronto. "Year over year, Canadians have identified that their confidence in their health care system is eroding."
While the quality of medicare earned a B overall, the proportion of C and F grades jumped by eight per cent compared with a similar poll commissioned by the CMA last year.
The Ipsos-Reid telephone poll, conducted July 9-12, posed a range of questions on attitudes towards health care to 1,057 Canadian adults, asking them to assign an A, B, C or F grade to various aspects of the system, with A the highest and F representing a failing grade.
"The confidence of Canadians is steadily declining," said Patel.
"They are getting worried. They do not believe the health-care system on the present track will be there for their children."
Canadians ranked their own contributions - adopting healthier lifestyles and using services more judiciously - and those of health professionals in keeping the heart of the system pumping, assigning health-care providers and hospitals with overall B grades, the poll suggested.
"They are saying the system has been held together by the monumental efforts of the health-care providers . . . whereas they've given a C or an F to governments because of either mismanagement or inadequate funding or poor efficiencies and too much wrangling in the political arena," said Patel.
[Sheryl Ubelacker, "Confidence in health system declines," Canoe, 16 August 2004.]
Just as some Americans are calling for an inreased government role in health care, our neighbors to the north are blaming government for their system's woes:
TORONTO - A growing number of Canadians are giving the country's health care system a mediocre or failing grade, a report card by the organization representing Canada's doctors suggests.
"The report card shows that things are getting worse," said Dr. Sunil Patel, president of the Canadian Medical Association, which released the national poll to coincide with its annual meeting this week in Toronto. "Year over year, Canadians have identified that their confidence in their health care system is eroding."
While the quality of medicare earned a B overall, the proportion of C and F grades jumped by eight per cent compared with a similar poll commissioned by the CMA last year.
The Ipsos-Reid telephone poll, conducted July 9-12, posed a range of questions on attitudes towards health care to 1,057 Canadian adults, asking them to assign an A, B, C or F grade to various aspects of the system, with A the highest and F representing a failing grade.
"The confidence of Canadians is steadily declining," said Patel.
"They are getting worried. They do not believe the health-care system on the present track will be there for their children."
Canadians ranked their own contributions - adopting healthier lifestyles and using services more judiciously - and those of health professionals in keeping the heart of the system pumping, assigning health-care providers and hospitals with overall B grades, the poll suggested.
"They are saying the system has been held together by the monumental efforts of the health-care providers . . . whereas they've given a C or an F to governments because of either mismanagement or inadequate funding or poor efficiencies and too much wrangling in the political arena," said Patel.
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