Thank you, Madam Chair.
First, let me speak to you today on behalf of the 14 LHINs in Ontario. I represent Lambton County, Chatham-Kent, and Essex County. We refer to it as the gateway to Ontario because of the two major bridges we have as access points.
I'm relatively new to health care. In previous careers I've had the enjoyment of travelling quite a bit around the world. When I travelled, everybody would notice my red Maple Leaf, and they'd come up to me and talk to me about Canada Dry, our ginger ale. But then they'd come up to me and say, “You have good health care.”
If you could look at Canada as a brand, one of our brand attributes is universal health care. It helps to define us as a nation and as a culture. We have plenty to be proud of as Canadians, and I'm especially proud of the health care we deliver across Canada. However, our current health care system was built on fundamentals of the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, our population has aged, chronic diseases are on an increase, and our current cost structure is no longer sustainable.
What I would like to address with you today is what I would call “health care 2020”. Health care 2020 is a call to action to create a vision of transformation for health care in Canada. It is recognition that our current system is antiquated and incapable of meeting 21st century needs. A vision is needed to protect the Canadian brand promise so our children and grandchildren will continue to benefit from our publicly funded system. To do so, I will submit the following three suggestions to the committee: we need to address our human resource issues, both shortages and scopes of practice; we need to transition from episodic care to a comprehensive model of care; and finally, we need to invest in an e-health infrastructure to fully and uniformly transition to the 21st century.
l'II frame this issue with a brief glimpse at our current population health. Our landscape is changing. The prevalence of chronic disease is on a significant increase. This is driving the overutilization of our health care system. This is only compounded by the lack of primary care right across Canada, and especially in Ontario. In Erie St. Clair, we have a shortage of 124 physicians, and that's for a population of 650,000. That leaves approximately 150,000 residents without a family physician. The future doesn't look any better. Over 78% of our physicians are over the age of 50. The bottom line is that our people's health is declining and our system is overburdened.
We need a national health human resource plan that will seek to make the best use of available resources. If we continue as is, we will not have the professionals we need to meet our community needs. We need to redesign the system to work smarter, not harder. To do so, a national plan needs to look at how to maximize the scope of practice of all allied health professionals, such as our nurse practitioners and pharmacists. We also need to look at the barriers we impose across the provinces. A national plan needs to look at a system of redesign to promote the recruitment and retention of our health professionals.
In Erie St. Clair, over 90% of our emergency department visits are for non-life-threatening issues. Most relate to the provision of primary care. However, emergency departments were not designed for that. Collaborative or team-based care is the future of the health care system. It relies on a team of professionals that can look at the individual as a whole and is ideally suited to the provision of chronic disease management. It makes the best use of all allied health care professionals.
As a consumer entering a collaborative family practice, be it a CHC or a family health team, you will not see the sign on the wall saying “One issue only per visit”. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Think of a community health centre or a family health team as a village of care supporting a community. It's all under one roof. The alternative to this system will be an individual going to their family doctor, only to have to go back for another referral, only to have to visit another specialist.
For rural communities, this one-stop shopping experience is a great opportunity to introduce a new level of equality and accessibility in health care, avoiding costly and prohibitive trips to town for these services. In Erie St. Clair we've been working very hard with the local government to expand our community health centres and our family health teams. We've also extended this concept to developing teams for the provision of home care and end-of-life services.
New family practice collaborative models such as family health and community health centres are attractive to new graduates and have been widely successful. We must continue with this success. Collaborative care will depend on access to information technology to unlock its true potential. Health care has been lagging on this front, and so we have not yet seen the benefits of a uniform and functional e-health infrastructure.
We need to align our systems to ensure interoperability. I'm not talking about a system that's Canada-wide or province-wide; I'm talking about a system within our community. Eight-five per cent of the care our residents receive is in our community. We know our referral patterns, which will take us to 98% of our community.That's where we need interoperability.
Secondly, every Canadian needs an electronic patient record. Until this happens, our system will remain in the dark ages. Physicians should not have to work without access to somebody's medical history. They shouldn't have to order redundant tests and they shouldn't have to worry about reactions to prescriptions.
To change this is like working on a moving train. However, in the 21st century nothing less will suffice. Information technology is at the core of everything we do, and it should be at the core of our health care system.
To summarize, what I've discussed today is the challenges we have in preparing for our resources for 2020 and the need to have a national plan to address these challenges, and secondly, the need to change to a comprehensive model of care. And finally, we must learn to leverage our technology.
The federal government can provide assistance, just as it has shown with the wait-time strategies. Make it a national priority to maximize every health care professional skill for practice. Invest with the provinces to assist in the transformation to collaborative care. Help us build villages of care in all communities, both urban and rural, and provide the incentives that would allow the provinces to make courageous decisions to align our backrooms and our clinical platforms.
In all the places I've visited, health care is a common denominator. Our health care system does indeed help define us, and as a nation we must ensure that our system will live up to the health care brand we are so famous for. Let's continue our promise to Canadians and make the necessary steps to safeguard our universal health care.
Thank you.