Feb. 15, Toronto, Ont. – The Commission on the Reform of
Ontario’s Public Services has released its report titled “Public Service for
Ontarians: a Path to Sustainability and Excellence.” Prepared by economist Don
Drummond, the report contains 362 recommendations to increase efficiency in
various sectors, with a ‘substantial portion’ of these centred on health care.
Drummond
says this emphasis on health care was necessary as health care “is the largest
single item in the provincial budget.” Drummond’s report notes that “lashing out with major spending cuts
solves little” and, instead, lays out a number of areas where reconsideration
of strategy could result in healthier Ontarians and more efficient delivery of
health related services.
The
discussion surrounding health care is headquartered in Chapter Five of the
report (www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/reformcommission/chapters/ch5.html).
The chapter includes the following
quotes:
“Canadians
consistently tell pollsters that they do not particularly care much about the
cost of health care — they simply want access and quality of care. The high
cost of our health care system could perhaps be forgiven if the spending
produced superior results. It does not…The Canadian health care system does not
deliver great value for money when judged from a broader international
perspective.”
“We…need
to get past our myopic focus on health care to a broader view of health more
generally. Health is much more than patching up people once something has gone
wrong…Yet amazingly, three-quarters of the influences that account for health
outcomes barely register in the health care debate….[currently] the focus is on
patching up people after a health problem has struck rather than taking a
broader approach that might prevent problems or at least mitigate
the effects.”
“The
Canadian Institute for Health Information’s Health Care in Canada 2010 report
discusses a number of examples of inefficiency in the Canadian health care
system…these [inefficiencies] are classic symptoms of a system built for acute
care at a time when the needs have shifted more to chronic care…”
“The
ideal health system would put more emphasis on preventing poor health. It would
be patient-centric and would feature co-ordination along the complete continuum
of care that a patient might need.”
“Ontario
needs to integrate silos…”
“Interprofessional
team-based care, with care managers for the most complex patients,
is essential….”
“In this
ideal system, payment schemes and information gathering would be aligned to
support the patient-centric notion. Compensation for hospitals and physicians
would be more closely tied to outcomes of health rather than to the inputs or
services.”
“The
stakeholders themselves must speak out. Every citizen is a stakeholder, of
course, and should pay attention to and preferably take part in any debate. But
we must also hear from health care providers of all stripes…”
The
report makes 105 recommendations for increasing the efficiency of
health care delivery in the province of Ontario and concludes, “The clear
danger is that if we do not seize the opportunity to begin creating a more
efficient system that delivers more value for the money we spend on health
care, one or two decades from now, Ontarians will face options far less
attractive than the ones we face today.”
The Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA) recognizes that
the Drummond Report is potentially very significant to the profession in Ontario. OCA president, Natalia Lishchyna says, "Over
the coming weeks, the OCA will review the complete report to identify areas and
opportunities where the profession can work with the government, key health
care stakeholders, and our patients to help achieve a sustainable health care
system in Ontario. We encourage all of our members to review the report,
specifically the chapter related to health care, to gain an understanding of
the profound changes, and the opportunities they will bring to the profession
in Ontario."
Print this page
