June 24, 2011
Key Findings
Almost all CARP members agree, and the majority “strongly”, that health care providers should be required by law to meet certain service benchmarks, and those who fail to meet them should face pay/funding cuts, license suspension or fines. The benchmarks members would most like to see met deal with waiting times rather than positive patient outcomes.
CARP members’ experiences with the health care system may be more positive than the progress for the country at large on five key health care indicators described in the Health Council of Canada’s 2011 progress report “Health Care Renewal in Canada”.
Not only have many members had to wait for treatment, many also believe wait times are getting longer. Members are in favour of national drug purchasing and coverage strategies as the best way to bring down the cost of drugs. Use of electronic health records appears to be very common among CARP members’ doctors. Teletriage, or telephone medical advisory, is very successful and widely used among CARP members. Health innovation in Canada is very important to CARP members, and they think Canada is a player in this field.
The best way to enhance the caregiver-patient experience is to fund more home care and caregiver income support, according to members. A significant minority of members say communications between themselves and their family doctors could use improvement. In general, the wide majority of members find their interactions with the health care system to be satisfactory.
Slip and fall injuries and incapacitation among our members are fairly common, and are overwhelmingly a female phenomenon.
