Good morning, and thank you so much.
My name is Kaaren Neufeld, and I am president of the Canadian Nurses Association. I represent registered nurses from across the country. Thank you for the opportunity to present nurses' solutions for maintaining the sustainability of Canada's health system, and that's helping to ensure that each one of us can contribute fully to a productive economy.
Our analysis of the health care system reveals that Canada urgently needs to invest in three priorities: a national pharmacare strategy, advancing health through nursing science and innovation, and a pan-Canadian health human resources institute.
Let me address our first priority, which is a national pharmacare strategy. For many Canadians, this year has been indeed a very difficult time. Thousands of Canadians have lost their jobs, and in losing their jobs, they've lost their insured drug benefits. Also, according to a Canadian Health Coalition report, 42% of Canadian workers do not have a drug plan. That's almost half of Canadian workers, who are just one illness away from a very serious financial hardship. The Canadian Cancer Society reports that the price tag of $65,000 is the average cost of treatment with newer cancer drugs, and we all know that exceeds the annual income of millions and millions of Canadian households.
CNA believes prescription treatment for serious illness must not cripple Canadians financially. What good is a universally accessible medical diagnosis if you cannot afford the treatment? Some Canadians who need expensive drug therapy are not only fighting for their lives, but they are fighting to put food on their table and to keep their home. Canada's first ministers agreed in 2004 that all Canadians must have access to catastrophic drug coverage. They also agreed that Canadians should have safe, effective, and accessible drug coverage. That was five years ago. Therefore, CNA recommends that the federal government fulfill their commitment to implement a national pharmaceutical strategy.
Our second priority is advancing health through nursing science and innovation. The government knows the importance of science and innovation, as it has identified this as a priority within Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage. Now more than ever, we find innovative, effective, fiscally responsible ways of improving the health of Canadians in the health care system that serves us all.
Registered nurses are the largest group of health care providers in this country. We are more than a quarter million strong. We have the strongest potential to bring about health system reform. By leading and applying research innovations, registered nurses contribute to improvement and innovations in health service delivery, better quality care, and reduced health care costs. What I should actually say is, we were making unprecedented contributions. The funding that made this research possible has ended, and despite our best efforts to keep up the momentum, our requests for new research dollars have gone unanswered. The nursing research fund expired in March of 2009, and renewal of this funding is urgently needed so that we can continue to innovate. I invite you to read our brief, which outlines concrete examples of where nursing research has led to significant cost savings, reduced wait times, and fewer adverse patient outcomes that lead to expensive hospital stays. Therefore, CNA recommends that the federal government invest $55 million over 10 years in nursing research.
Finally, our third priority that I would like to raise is the need for a pan-Canadian health human resources institute. Canada will be short almost 60,000 full-time equivalent registered nurses by 2022. All of us will be 13 years older by then, and more likely in need of the care that nurses provide, and the nurses will not be there to provide that care because we have not planned ahead. Our aging population will have growing health care needs. We need to build our capacity to respond to those basic needs, not to mention the stresses that sudden crises like flu pandemics cause to our system. Governments acknowledged this impending crisis in the 2004 health accord, when they committed to accelerate work on health human resources action plans and initiatives to ensure that we have enough of the appropriate mix of health professionals to meet our needs. The time has come for concerted action on this issue. CNA recommends that the federal government invest $10 million in an institute to promote and facilitate pan-Canadian health human resources planning.
So to recap, Canadian nurses are pressing for three priorities. We are calling for a national pharmacare strategy, advancing health through nursing science and innovation, and a pan-Canadian health human resources institute. The return on these investments can be calculated not only in terms of dollars and cents, but much more importantly on leveraging the effects of a healthy nation for our future prosperity.
Thank you for your attention.