The Universal Healthcare has been hailed as a holy grail of Canadian society. Many of the health reports published paint this publicly funded health system as a reflection of their core values. Such conclusions are easily made basing on the surveys that put Canadian satisfaction rate with the health system at 85%. There are however several problems with universal healthcare in Canada that have persisted over time.
The publicly funded health system is facing major challenges that threaten to render it unsustainable in the long run. The major areas of concerns include the patient average wait time, the shortage of professional medical personnel and the increasing challenges of funding.
The major areas that paints a wrong picture in this health system includes wait time which ranks as the top concern, access and shortage of healthcare providers. In addition to these, other emerging issues such as environmental health challenges such as air and water pollutions are also becoming major areas of concern.
This situation forced the federal government to device a 10 year plan in 2005 to see the issue solved. As much as the current data is showing a decreasing trend in wait time, the issue still emerges as the top of the concern among the majority of the Canadian population.
The concern forced the government to develop a plan to address the issue in provincial hospitals by reducing wait time particularly in the areas of cancer, heart diseases, diagnostic imaging, sight restoration and joint replacement. The plan was enrolled in 2005 but the latest surveys still indicate waiting time as their number one concern. This is persistent in the areas of specialized surgery and elective surgery where this country continues to score poorly.
Shortage of Doctors and Other Health Professionals. This is also a major concern as revealed by health surveys in Canada which put it at the second position after the wait time. The problem is largely explained by the immigration of doctors across the border to the United States where the average pay for a doctor is slightly higher than that of Canada. The result is that there are large numbers of patients seeking treatment against few health professionals available in public hospitals.
The other challenges that face the Canadian health system include shortage in bed capacity in many provincial hospitals. Some patients have to seek for alternative means of treatment while others have to be released earlier than their scheduled time because of this issue. This problem is largely attributed to inadequate funding from the public resources.
All these challenges in addition to smaller ones like shortage of beds in wards in a significant numbers of public hospitals and the concern that budgetary allocation towards this health policy put a lot of strains in this the economy increases concerns as to whether this policy will be sustainable in the long run.
Despite these shortcomings, many Canadians still value their health system very much and would prefer that the problems with universal healthcare in Canada are addressed rather than the whole system being shut down. Those in favor of the radical measures in correcting the system are still the majority according to a poll conducted in 2007 by Queens University Kingston, Ontario.
The publicly funded health system is facing major challenges that threaten to render it unsustainable in the long run. The major areas of concerns include the patient average wait time, the shortage of professional medical personnel and the increasing challenges of funding.
The major areas that paints a wrong picture in this health system includes wait time which ranks as the top concern, access and shortage of healthcare providers. In addition to these, other emerging issues such as environmental health challenges such as air and water pollutions are also becoming major areas of concern.
This situation forced the federal government to device a 10 year plan in 2005 to see the issue solved. As much as the current data is showing a decreasing trend in wait time, the issue still emerges as the top of the concern among the majority of the Canadian population.
The concern forced the government to develop a plan to address the issue in provincial hospitals by reducing wait time particularly in the areas of cancer, heart diseases, diagnostic imaging, sight restoration and joint replacement. The plan was enrolled in 2005 but the latest surveys still indicate waiting time as their number one concern. This is persistent in the areas of specialized surgery and elective surgery where this country continues to score poorly.
Shortage of Doctors and Other Health Professionals. This is also a major concern as revealed by health surveys in Canada which put it at the second position after the wait time. The problem is largely explained by the immigration of doctors across the border to the United States where the average pay for a doctor is slightly higher than that of Canada. The result is that there are large numbers of patients seeking treatment against few health professionals available in public hospitals.
The other challenges that face the Canadian health system include shortage in bed capacity in many provincial hospitals. Some patients have to seek for alternative means of treatment while others have to be released earlier than their scheduled time because of this issue. This problem is largely attributed to inadequate funding from the public resources.
All these challenges in addition to smaller ones like shortage of beds in wards in a significant numbers of public hospitals and the concern that budgetary allocation towards this health policy put a lot of strains in this the economy increases concerns as to whether this policy will be sustainable in the long run.
Despite these shortcomings, many Canadians still value their health system very much and would prefer that the problems with universal healthcare in Canada are addressed rather than the whole system being shut down. Those in favor of the radical measures in correcting the system are still the majority according to a poll conducted in 2007 by Queens University Kingston, Ontario.
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