Column: Health Act suffering from system failure

In 1966, the government of Canada declared that all Canadians should be able to obtain health services of high quality according to their need, irrespective of their ability to pay. By 1972, all the provinces were participating in a 50/50 cost sharing arrangement with Ottawa. In 1983, Brian Mulroney called Medicare a sacred trust.

But during the last decade, the federal government has decided to cap its health transfers to the provinces. The worry about the future of health care, the social program that now consumes 50 per cent of the Ontario budget and is guaranteed to continue to grow in cost, has been delegated to the provinces.

How is our province coping with the financial pressures of an aging population?
I recently attended a roundtable with health-care providers. Some of the comments were telling.

Long-term care staff are upset about the poor level of staffing. It seems there is never enough time to spend with the residents, to prove that we care. Residents soil themselves because they have to wait too long to be helped to the bathroom.

There is not enough cleaning staff to keep the hospital sufficiently clean. Salaries for personal support workers are too low to retain a stable workforce. Young people with mental health and developmental problems are being admitted to long-term care facilities for lack of enough new group homes.

Each and every participant at the roundtable recommended more resources.

There is more evidence of dissatisfaction. The Ontario government and the Ontario Medical Association are at odds over who should be financially responsible for the increasing number of visits to doctors.

Health Sciences North faces a significant financial challenge over the next two years that must be solved in order to produce a legislated balanced budget.

The Sault Area Hospital confirmed it would be laying off 35 full-time and seven part-time workers. The hospital in North Bay has just cut 75 jobs as part of an effort to reduce costs and restructure services.

The CEO, Paul Heinrich, said, "We will do what we can, for who we can and with what we have."

The complaint coming from all directions is that government is not spending enough money on health care. Let me assure you, the Ontario government has been spending lots of money, just not very effectively.

It has been introducing new programs: a program here, a program there, new programs everywhere. But this has been taking place in a system in serious need of radical change. There has been no major reform in 50 years. No wonder there is anger — the system appears disjointed and ineffective.

How come? Joey Smallwood, Newfoundland’s first premier, once said he never dealt with a health-care issue that did not lose him votes. Politicians know this.

Whatever the party, the one in power has been afraid of criticism from those who are waiting to take their place. Maybe, just maybe, Ontario’s three major parties could now decide to collaborate and strike an all-party committee to write a new Ontario Health Act.

One that would aim to provide the most good, for the most people, within the resources that our province can afford.
That would be a worthy legacy.

Dr. Peter Zalan is president of the medical staff at Health Sciences North.