Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I am Dr. Robert Ouellet. I'm a radiologist from Laval, Quebec, at least when my duties as president of the Canadian Medical Association allow me.
It is essential to address the labour shortage in the health sector in Canada if we want to transform the Canadian health system into a truly patient-centred system. The research conducted as part of the Canadian Medical Association's health care transformation initiative shows that the European countries that have universal access and do not have significant wait times all have a higher physician-to-population ratio than ours.
During the 2008 federal election campaign, four of the five parties represented in the House of Commons heard the CMA's warning about serious shortages in the health care workforce. They all promised to act. We haven't seen action on that front yet.
The CMA is here today to present a plan of action in three specific areas: capacity, the retention of Canadian physicians, and innovation. In our brief, you'll find 12 practical recommendations within the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Canada lags behind other countries in our capacity to educate and train physicians.
Currently, between four and five million Canadians do not have a family doctor. The problem doesn't just affect the rural areas. We're talking about places like Barrie, Ontario, as the honourable member from that riding very well knows. The same problem exists in Quebec.
More than one-half of Canadian physicians are over 55 years of age, and I am one of them. Many of them will be retiring soon or will be reducing their workload. Most are no longer accepting new patients.
At the same time, medical progress and better living habits are enabling Canadians to live better and longer, which further increases demand for health professionals. As you know, chronic diseases are increasingly a burden.
But with better coordination among jurisdictions to allow HHR planning on a national scale, we can respond to these challenges. Canada's doctors and other health professionals are ready to assist policy-makers in their planning and coordination to better meet the health care needs of Canadians.
International medical graduates, or IMGs, also play a huge role in Canada's supply of doctors. Close to one-quarter of all physicians in Canada are IMGs, and the CMA fully supports bringing into practice the qualified IMGs already in Canada. However, poaching doctors from countries that cannot afford to lose them is not an acceptable solution to our physician shortage. Canada must strive for greater self-sufficiency in the education and training of physicians.
The Canadian Medical Association also believes that the same evaluation standards must be applied to foreign graduates as to the graduates of Canadian medical faculties. The CMA further recommends that greater funding be made available to the provinces so that they can offer mentoring programs to foreign graduates to enable them to obtain their licences.
It is also important to note that up to 1,500 Canadians are studying medicine abroad. Two-thirds of these homegrown IMGs want to come home to complete their post-graduate training. We must increase training opportunities so that we don't lose Canadians who have studied medicine to other countries. We must understand that Canada's teaching centres are bursting at the seams as they try to meet demand. This must be addressed.
Competition to attract physicians is raising a few challenges for us here in Canada and internationally. The new Agreement on Internal Trade within Canada and other agreements will ease the movement of health professionals from region to region, but could make it even more difficult to retain physicians in under-serviced areas. The international demand for medical staff has never been as great. Canada must continue to strive to retain the health professionals it has trained and to facilitate a return to Canada by physicians wishing to return and practise here.
While Canada must do more to increase both our supply and retention of HHR, we must also support innovation in order to better use existing health resources. Collaborative models of care and advances in information technology can help create a more efficient health care system that provides higher-quality care. In fact, new collaborative care initiatives are popping up across the country to the great benefit of patients.
Information technologies can help create a more efficient health system, but Canada lags far behind the other OECD countries in the adoption of electronic medical records. Recent investments in Canada Health Infoway will help, but an estimated $500 million should be invested to equip all points of care in the communities.
Canada's doctors believe we can build a health care system where all Canadians can get timely access to quality care services regardless of their ability to pay. To do this, we must shift our attitude and implement new strategies, new ideas, and new thinking. This is what the CMA's ongoing health care transformation project is all about.
A national health human resources strategy is the turning point for our efforts to build a patient-centred system. All we're lacking is action.
Thank you.