(Ottawa) The federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, makes a most disturbing diagnosis when he assesses the state of the country’s health network: the patient is “seriously ill”, he says, and he will have to transfer him shortly to intensive care if nothing is done to restore him.
The disease that afflicts him – “the sickness of the silos” – can be cured. But it will take more than federal money to get there, he said. The provinces must do things differently, in particular by instituting better sharing of data and using common health indicators, he pleads, in a long interview granted to The Press.
“The system is seriously ill. He’s in the emergency room and we don’t want him to go to intensive care. […] He is in the emergency room because we did not take care of him before,” said Minister Duclos.
“We are talking about the health system. But we don’t have a health care system in Canada or in Quebec. We have pieces that could make a system as a whole, but that’s not the case because the pieces of this system work independently of each other. It is the sickness of the silos. And everyone recognizes that it is a serious illness,” he notes.
Our system will not survive if we do not make major changes. […]. The silos must disappear so that people can work together more, that we remain centered on the patient and that there is better sharing of information.
Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health of Canada
For example, Minister Duclos points out that hospitals work independently of family physicians. Doctors work independently of CLSCs and pharmacies, he lists.
Result: there is not enough sharing of information on people’s health between the various players in the network. This largely contributes to its cumbersomeness, inefficiency and high cost.
This is why the federal government insists that the provinces accept certain reforms to ensure the viability of the network before injecting billions of dollars more.
“You go to the emergency room and it is likely that the nurse or the doctor who will see you cannot access your health file. The only way to do that is to send a fax maybe to your family doctor, try to call his office and ask him to send him some information about you. It’s a lot of time and a lot of money that is wasted. And that greatly affects the safety of care. The poor doctor who is going to treat you will be afraid of not treating you properly because he does not have enough information about you,” he noted.
According to him, this situation must change. The status quo is untenable.
Data saves lives. There needs to be better sharing of data between providers and patients.
Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health of Canada
In Quebec, Minister Duclos affirms that only one-third of family physicians are able to obtain information outside their practice environment or are able to send information outside their private clinic. “A third is not a lot. »
Health transfers
Over the past few weeks, the war of words between Ottawa and the provinces has escalated as hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed and healthcare workers are stretched thin after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. 19 and the arrival of respiratory viruses.
The provinces are demanding an annual increase in health transfers in the order of $28 billion, and that without conditions. According to the calculations of the provinces, such an increase would mean that Ottawa would pay 35% of the total bill related to the health system against 22% today. Two weeks ago, the provincial premiers asked Justin Trudeau to convene a meeting early in the new year to settle this file.
Ottawa counters that it is paying its fair share of health care costs if you take into account the tax points it transferred to the provinces in the 1970s. Writing another check to the provinces without demanding results in return.
“If I sent all the money that the provinces are asking for, there is no guarantee that … people would wait less long in hospitals,” said Justin Trudeau in an interview with CBC. “There is no point in putting more money into a failing system. »
In an interview, Minister Duclos pointed out that health transfers to the provinces will increase by 10% starting in March. And that the federal government has poured billions of dollars more into the provinces during the pandemic.
“We have to make sure that our system stays alive in the long term because our population is aging. Our workers are also aging. […] All ministers know and agree that it is important to invest in data infrastructures. But due to the acute crisis in our healthcare system, energy and attention are still focused on hospitals. »