Essential Reading
Murray Martin and Cliff Nordal, A Visit Down Under: Our Journey to Improve Canada's Healthcare System. Healthcare Quarterly Vol. 11 No.3, June 2008Click here for the full report.
With our journey behind us, the road ahead seems abundantly clear. Canada does not need a private hospital system. What this country does need is to stay the course. Many governments around the world have made major changes to the dynamics of their healthcare systems only to be faced with unanticipated consequences that have forced them to direct even more money at the new system to repair gaps and damage. We've made great gains in so many areas, not the least of which is patient safety, and to sacrifice this good work to try our hand at a private system would be foolhardy.
Instead, we should commit to capital investment comparable to what is being provided in Australia and New Zealand and add the operating funding incentives necessary to help achieve access goals. Since the creation of any private hospital system would need to be accompanied by a private hospital insurance system and the Australian federal goverment subsidizes its system to the tune of $3 billion annually, why not make this type of investment in Canada's public hospital system? We estimate that a similar federal subsidy in Canada would cost somewhere in the order of $5 billion annually. Imagine what that could do for our Canadian system?
With appropriate accountabilities in place, and the freedom to innovate, our public system can meet or exceed the expectations of our public and those of us who have dedicated our professional lives to working within this system. And so we should thus begin the next journey in our ongoing Canadian quest.
Murray Martin is President and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences.
Cliff Nordal is President and CEO of both London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care, London.
