Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and honourable members.
My name is Karen Cohen. I'm the recently appointed co-chair of the Health Action Lobby. I'm also the executive director of the Canadian Psychological Association. I'm joined by Pamela Fralick, who is the past co-chair of the Health Action Lobby and president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association.
The Health Action Lobby, or HEAL, is a coalition of 38 national health and consumer associations and organizations dedicated to protecting and strengthening Canada's health system. It represents more than a half million providers and consumers of health service in Canada. It was established in 1991 with a view to exchanging knowledge, developing consensus, and providing advice to government and others on pan-Canadian health issues.
HEAL is recommending that the federal government establish a five-year national health human resource infrastructure fund valued at $1 billion. It's important to note that the fund is time-limited, issue-specific, and strategically targeted.
In 2007, Canada spent $160 billion on health. It's estimated that between 60¢ and 80¢ of every health care dollar in Canada is spent on health human resource. In other words, of $160 billion, $96 billion to $128 billion was invested in health human resource. This investment underscores the central role of the health professionals within the health care system. The magnitude and the role of the investment demands that we undertake health human resource planning thoughtfully, responsibly, and accountably.
The infrastructure fund is a critical step towards improving the access to health and health service that Canadians need. It's driven by three trends. First, the health needs of Canadians are becoming more complex as a result of chronic disease and living longer with chronic disease, as well as an aging demographic. Second, like the general population, health providers themselves are aging, with several of our health care professions having an average age of over 45 years. They're reaching retirement and they're leaving the profession in numbers greater than they're being replaced. Third, the foregoing trends are not unique in Canada, resulting in intensified global competition to attract and retain experienced and specialized health care professionals.
The fund we're suggesting takes on these trends by targeting these essential and interrelated elements necessary to train and develop additional health care professionals and leaders. These are funding for special initiatives to offset the direct costs of training providers and developing leaders, such as the cost of recruiting and supporting more community-based teachers and mentors--and here, we echo what we've heard today from our colleagues in medical laboratory science; to offset the indirect or infrastructure costs associated with the educational enterprise, i.e. the buildings, housekeeping, maintenance, and information systems that we need to support education and training; as well as an overall data management system that allows us to specify, track, forecast, and cost health human resource requirements in the face of an evolving demand for health service.
The first two elements are required to create additional education and training positions. Practical training depends upon sustained and resourced engagement of community-based teachers, supervisors, and mentors. The third element of HEAL's proposal--precisely, data management--is essential if we are to clearly understand the causes of the boom-bust cycle of our health workforce supply and demand in Canada, demonstrate accountably an effective use of resources, and engage future evidence in foreign practices and decision-making to respond to Canada's evolving health needs.
Understanding the future responsiveness of the health system in terms of providing quality health and health care services in a timely fashion largely depends on the availability of health providers. We are of the view that now is the time for the federal government, in close collaboration and consultation with the provinces and territories and providers themselves, to establish a national health human resource infrastructure fund.
Thank you.