Madam Speaker, I rise today with great honour to participate in this debate. This issue is of great interest not only to me and to all members in the House, but to Canadians wherever they live in this great country of ours. We must ensure that we look at the whole issue of health care and that we have the facts straight when it comes to the things the federal government is doing in this very important area.
Most of us will agree that the state of health care in Canada is the most important and pressing question in the country today. Canadians wherever they live are looking for leadership. They are looking not only to the provincial and territorial governments, but to the federal government as well to play a leading role in this important area and justifiably so. It is something that is so fundamental. It goes to the very core of who we are as a people and who we are as a nation.
Canadians wherever they live expect the federal government and its territorial and provincial partners to work together to make sure that there is a health care system in place not only for us now, but for our children and our children's children. Canadians expect that and rightfully so.
I appeal to everyone to redouble their efforts to make it happen and to make it work. We must get together and have the meetings required to set the long term strategy in place. It is too easy simply to throw money at the system. I have travelled in the last little while in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and I can tell the House that people in all of those places are consistent in what they say. They do not want us simply to throw money at the problem. They want us to put in place a long term strategy and a good plan. They want us to put in place a long term view as opposed to simply throwing money at the system now.
Once that plan and long range vision is secured and most people have agreed to it in terms of what we should do and how we should do it, then put the necessary resources and money behind it to make sure that it happens. It should not be just for the short term, but a sustained process where people can look with confidence at the health care system and know that it will be in place for a while.
We can be justifiably proud of our great health care system. We do not have to travel very far around the world to know that we take an awful lot for granted here in Canada, and health care is one of the things we take for granted. Yes, there are problems. Yes, we need to make adjustments. Yes, we need to work with others. Yes, we need to adjust the whole system to tailor it into the 21st century.
There are a lot of new things happening in technology. Demographics change and affect the system. All kinds of things need to be done. We need to double or triple our efforts to make sure that it happens and put in place the long term plan and strategy and then put the money in place to sustain it.
I, along with the residents of Waterloo—Wellington and others, insist and demand that the federal government take a lead role. I am confident that is precisely what we are doing now and in projections into the future we will certainly do precisely that. That is what Canadians expect of the federal government in this all important area. It is a fundamental core value of this great country of ours that people go out of their way to proclaim and to celebrate. It is certainly something I celebrate and I know other members do as well, and we do so because it is of such great value to all of us.
New demands are being placed on the system. I have already mentioned demographics and how they will affect the health care system in the future.
I also want to talk in terms of care being delivered in new ways. With new technology and new things happening, that is precisely what is taking place. We need to be part of that. That is why when we developed the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in Bill C-13, we did it with vision and foresight. Under those institutes all kinds of things will be coming out, new medical procedures, new cures for diseases and new technology.
We do not have to take a back seat to anyone when it comes to medical science and the great medical community that is right here in this country. One of the proudest things I did as chairman of the health committee was to call in witnesses from the United States. There were five of them. Young Canadians had gone to the United States for experience and might have stayed, but as a result of Bill C-13 and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, they are coming back to Canada to bring the knowledge gained in other places, in this case the United States, back to their home country. How very, very proud we can be of those young people and the others who will do the same as a result of the good work of the government when it comes to medical research.
We have all heard the stories of emergencies and the backup of people waiting especially during flu season. We know about having to wait for specialists. These are huge problems in the medical system. Quite frankly I cringe when I hear them because it is not what we have come to expect. We need to do the necessary work to make sure that is not the case.
In an interesting poll, Canadians were asked if they had firsthand experience with the medicare system. Of those who said yes, 80% said that it had been a good experience for them. But when they were asked if they had heard stories about problems or if there had been dissatisfaction with what they perceived the system to be, it was the reverse, because 80% said there have been problems and only 20% said there was confidence.
There is a real dichotomy between the reality of 80% of Canadians getting good service and the 20% who feel that they have confidence in the system. Between reality and perception there is this kind of dichotomy.
We need to work hard to change that perception and make it into a reality that all Canadians can enjoy. We need to restore this confidence. That is part of our challenge in this very important health care debate, to make sure that we provide the kind of quality care that is affordable, accessible and beneficial to Canadians and their families.
As my colleague the Minister of Health has stated, this is going to require more than just money. I have already talked about that. We need to put in place a plan. More to the point, we need to put in place some linkages among the various sectors in health care service delivery. We need to ensure that people are receiving appropriate types of care at appropriate settings and at appropriate times. The care has to match the settings, which have to match the times. That is what is required for Canadians wherever they live in Canada.
One of the ways we will go about doing this is by building a more patient-centred approach. Currently, for example, patients who receive prescription drugs free while in hospital have to pay out of their own pockets for those same drugs when they go home, unless they have access to such benefits through their employer, province or territory.
Our mothers and fathers leaving the hospital may not have access to the home and community services they need. Or, if they can find them, they cannot afford them. These are all problems.
One in five Canadian women are providing care for someone at home, on average, 28 hours a week. Half of those women, many of whom have children, also work outside the home.
Too often patients have to navigate the bureaucracy by themselves, without any kind of guidance in a very complex and complicated area. We need to help these people, not hinder them. For some, in fact many, it is much too complex and confusing. Laboratory tests are often repeated unnecessarily. Patients are asked to recount their medical history time and time again. Records are not immediately available when needed.
The point I am making is that all of these are signs and symptoms of a health sector where instead of linkages there are silos. We need to break down these silos and provide the linkages. That is the important part of this whole equation.
What would an integrated health care system look like? That is really getting to the essence of what we should have. What would it look like?
An integrated system would, first of all, bring together health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and care. The full range of medically required health services would be properly funded and closely connected, from primary care delivered by an interdisciplinary team to the hospital bed, to home and community care, and to long term facilities, ensuring Canadians a smooth transition from one health service provider to another. That is important.
By way of conclusion, let me say that this past week I attended a conference on tele-medicine in the riding of Stormont—Dundas—Charlottenburgh. It was as a result of the work done by the Minister of Health, the minister responsible for rural development and the chair of the rural caucus, the member for Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, who have put in place tele-medicine for rural Canadians. This is what we are talking about. These are the good things.
