Trudeau says Ottawa wants to make sure health spending delivers ‘tangible results’

The federal authorities desires to ensure billions of {dollars} transferred to the provinces and territories for well being care will “ship actual, tangible outcomes for Canadians” with shorter wait occasions and higher providers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Up to now, “big investments” by provincial and federal governments haven’t at all times delivered the mandatory enhancements, Trudeau stated Wednesday.

His remarks got here a day after the 13 premiers wrapped up two days of talks in Victoria, united in frustration that Trudeau hadn’t set a date to fulfill with them to renegotiate funding for what they are saying is a “crumbling” health-care system.

Ottawa must cease “quibbling” over well being care and meet with the premiers to handle their request for steady, long-term well being funding, B.C. Premier John Horgan informed a information convention throughout the Council of the Federation gathering.

READ MORE: Canadian premiers fail to acquire assembly with federal authorities on well being care

Andrew Longhurst, a well being coverage researcher at Simon Fraser College in Burnaby, B.C., stated Ottawa is correct to be involved about how the provinces and territories spend well being switch cash as a result of it has traditionally flowed into their common accounts, and in some instances, they’ve gone on to chop taxes and run surpluses of their budgets.

The provinces are additionally partaking in “blame shifting” round how the system has reached a disaster level by ignoring their very own roles in failing to tackle the troublesome, years-long work of modernizing well being care, he stated in an interview.

There are some promising evidence-based initiatives, “however what we don’t see in most provinces is a scientific scaling-up” of these practices, stated Longhurst, who can also be a analysis affiliate with the Canadian Centre for Coverage Alternate options.

The provinces’ dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the disaster, he stated, noting indoor masks mandates have largely been lifted whereas one other extremely infectious variant is spreading, and hospitalizations are on the rise.

“The fact that we see amongst our health-care workforces throughout the nation and our well being providers, is extreme pressure to the purpose of collapsing… as a result of we’re not managing the continued pandemic in a wise manner,” Longhurst stated.

READ MORE: Canadian well being care on ‘brink of catastrophe,’ nurses say

Horgan on Tuesday stated well being care is the highest cost-driver for provincial and territorial budgets, so there’s no debate about what they’d do with extra funds.

Nonetheless, there are completely different priorities in every jurisdiction, and a province the place the inhabitants is growing older could focus extra on long-term care than one other, he stated.

He additionally stated the premiers are joyful to speak about potential circumstances connected to federal cash, however they first want to fulfill in particular person with the prime minister.

Horgan, who chairs the premiers’ council, stated he wrote to Trudeau in December and April with a proposal on the right way to begin the work, however hadn’t heard again.

Trudeau informed media he doesn’t assume any of his predecessors have met with the premiers about well being care as a lot as he has over the past two years, and the leaders will proceed to work collectively to handle “pressures” within the system.

“The federal authorities will probably be there to put money into well being care, however we’re going to be sure that these investments ship for Canadians,” he stated.

Well being Minister Jean-Yves Duclos outlined the federal authorities’s 5 precedence areas throughout a speech in March: addressing staffing shortages and delays in analysis, therapies and surgical procedures; entry to household well being providers; long-term and residential care; psychological well being and substance use; and well being information and digital care.

Horgan, together with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and others, stated they haven’t seen the potential circumstances Ottawa could also be trying to connect to the funds.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston stated not one of the provinces and territories try to “scrimp on a health-care price range and divert cash some other place,” and the one factor hampering progress is the shortage of discussions with Ottawa.

The premiers need the federal authorities to extend its share of long-term well being funding to 35 per cent, up from what they stated quantities to 22 per cent.

Trudeau stated Ottawa has added $72 billion in health-care funding over the previous two years, on prime of the tens of billions supplied by the Canada well being switch.

Longhurst stated declines within the federal well being transfers predate the Trudeau authorities and it’s affordable for the premiers to ask for extra.

However important alternatives for enchancment lie in reshaping the outdated fashions and buildings that underpin how health-care providers are delivered, and that goes past spending extra money, he stated.

The Nineteen Sixties fee-for-service system during which docs and surgeons basically run their very own enterprise whereas being paid with public {dollars} is one instance of an outdated mannequin that’s holding again enhancements in affected person care, Longhurst stated.

“We’ve got different fashions which are way more aligned to those system objectives of bettering entry and bettering the flexibility to have groups work collectively (and) having higher helps that aren’t nearly medical intervention, however about prevention and power illness administration and so forth,” he stated.

The results of rising inequality and the social determinants of well being, resembling housing insecurity and poverty, should not be ignored of the dialog, he added.

Canada doesn’t spend on the identical stage of a lot of its peer nations on social helps which are confirmed to contribute to improved well being outcomes, he stated.

“We all know that over generations, these investments really yield dividends.”