Preview

Ontario Health Care System: A Case Study

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1356 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ontario Health Care System: A Case Study
Ontario’s population is rapidly increasing and aging, while severe diseases and health issues are on the rise. This issue continues to increase as our population ages. There are several reasons why the Ontario health care system is short coming and needs such a large improvement: there is a limited amount of physicians available, waiting times for medical attention are immense, and Ontario’s budget for health care has experienced major cutbacks. This is part of a growing problem specifically in Ontario. Citizens are not receiving the value they deserve from the health care system, and it cannot continue down this path.
To begin, there is a constant struggle due to the limited number of doctors in Ontario. Furthermore, without enough physicians
…show more content…
Some are waiting years for transplants, and rare surgical procedures. Those in need are offered the option to go to United States of America (and pay), or choose to wait. As stated by C. Johnnston “The situation still rankles, how-ever. Lack of action to reduce waiting lists in Canada means those who can afford it will be able to go the US for surgery, while those who can 't will have to wait in pain until their name reaches the top of the waiting list” (1996). As shown by Johnston, this ongoing issue has been leaving people with an option they cannot afford, or a painful wait, and has been an ongoing issue for many years. There are as well intolerable wait times to be admitted into emergency clinics, and doctors’ offices that house urgent care clinics, treatment facilities, and family offices. In addition, wait times are anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks for appointments if you have a doctor, and 5 hours to 12 hours or more when in the emergency department. “There is increasing concern in Canada regarding growing pressures on emergency room care. Frequent media reports call attention to overcrowding, lengthy waiting times and the re-routing of ambulances due to the closure of emergency rooms during periods of overcrowding” (Katie Wellstood, Kathi Wilson, John Eyles , 2005). In other words, the issue of over populated wait rooms, and long wait times …show more content…
Wilson, Kathi (2008). I spent 9 years looking for a doctor”: Exploring access to health care among immigrants in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Volume 66, Issue 6. 1271-1283 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18194831

Campbell,Pat. (2013) Ontario Budget Avoids Key Actions Necessary To Sustain Ontario 's Health Care System. http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1157707/ontario-budget-avoids-key-actions-necessary-to-sustain-ontario-s-health-care-system

Johnston,C. (1996). US ad uses lure of prompt treatment to entice Canadians needing joint replacement. 1071–1072. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1487577/
Randall, E Crooks V. Goldsmith, L. (2012). In search of attachment: a qualitative study of chronically ill women transitioning between family physicians in rural Ontario, Canada. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/13/125
Weir, Doug (2012). Physician shortage in the U.S threatens physician supply in Ontario. https://www.oma.org/Mediaroom/PressReleases/Pages/PhysicianShortageintheUS.aspx

Wellstood, Katie. Wilson, Kathi. Eyles, John (2005). Unless you went in with your head under your arm.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Assignment 4 432 APA

    • 2590 Words
    • 7 Pages

    As a Canadian nurse who has worked at several hospitals in Canada, it is apparent that our government funded hospitals leave much to be desired. The wait times in the emergency department stagger over several hours for illnesses that can be treated within minutes. Our emergency rooms are over loaded and we simply do not have the nursing or doctor staff to keep up with this demand. The issue is not only related to the growing and aging population; rather the core of the issue remains that most Canadians are without any family physicians covered by Medicare. Canada is facing a crisis. Timely access to health care services is getting progressively worse for Canadians. The single biggest reason for this is a severe shortage of health professionals. High on the list of those in short supply are family doctors. More than 4 million Canadians cannot find family physicians to care for them; compared to people with family physicians, those that have no family doctors are more vulnerable to prolonged wait times throughout the system and are less satisfied with the performance of all other health professionals, institutions, and governments (The College of Family Physicians of Canada, 2004, p.3). In response to this shortage of publicly funded physicians, I have decided to integrate a privately funded family medicine clinic. This clinic will allow patients quick and easy access to a family physician that can treat their minor emergencies as well as provide continued health care as needed. This organization is a growing trend. Today the discussion is not whether private health care should have a role in the system, but rather what role private health care will have (Mason, 2008, p.130). By integrating a privately funded family medicine clinic into Canadian society, it will not only decrease wait times in public hospitals and…

    • 2590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Health Care Professionals

    • 1766 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The structure of the U.S heath care system is certainly a topic greatly debated. Whether it is discussing the cost of health care, poor outcomes, shortages in health care workers, underutilization of other health care workers, the lack of access to care, or growing demand by consumers for health care that offers choice, quality, convenience, affordability and personalized care. It is not a secret that the United States spends more money than any other nation on health care, but only ranks 34th in the world in life expectancy and has higher mortality rates in infants than any other nation that is developed.…

    • 1766 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Venice Family Clinic

    • 38225 Words
    • 99 Pages

    Wait List Management Project Group Membership Dr. Don Milliken, Chair, Psychiatry, Victoria Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid, General Practice, Trail Dr. John Mathieson, Radiology, Victoria Dr. Surendranath Sanmugasunderam, Ophthalmology, Vancouver Dr. Keith Stothers, Orthopedic Surgery, Vancouver…

    • 38225 Words
    • 99 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Canadian health care system, although flawed, is privilege. There are only a number of countries that has a similar healthcare system where basic health care needs are covered by the government (i.e. France, Denmark, Germany, UK, etc.), the rest have a privatized health care system where an individual would have to pay for each visit and procedure depending on the amount their insurance covers (i.e. USA, Philippines, etc.).…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that one of the major challenges that the Canadian health care model faces is the quality of care that they can provide due the increase in the number of providers and services being added to the continuum. The issue that arises from more services and providers being incorporated is that the cost to cover them will inflate. Considering that taxes fund the public sector and an increase in funding may be the only option to sustain these…

    • 80 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Waiting times for patient health care have been widely considered a problem in a variety of environments, including hospital emergency rooms as well as health care clinics. They remain one of the most significant issues facing our health care systems, and many studies have been conducted looking to improve current medical center situations. The main issue creating such problems is that hospital and health care clinic's facilities and resources have become insufficient, leading to chronic overcrowding and patients not being treated efficiently -- sometimes in the case of an emergency. This article aims to analyze and understand the functionality of the Ryerson Medical Centre, through conducting in-field research and…

    • 2619 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Canadian healthcare system is based on the publicly funded “Medicare” programme since the 60s. Canada’s healthcare system represents a national health insurance model which uses private sector providers while payments come from a government insurance programme that every citizen is obliged to pay. In 2013, the 35.2 million people living in Canada have spent in health $4.351 per capita in total (public, private and out of pocket) which represents 10,2% of GDP, nearly to the average health spending of OECD countries (OECD, 2016). It is important to mention that Canada is divided in large geographic regions, 10 provinces and 3 territories. Approximately, 75% of the population of Canada, lives within 100 miles of the U.S.A borders and over half of the population lives in Ontario and Quebec. Nonetheless,…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although most Canadians believe that they have the best healthcare system is the best in the world this may have been the case in the early 90's but many other countries have reformed there healthcare system and Canada has ranked 10 out of 17 The Conference Board of Canada for the past few years. This evidence is strongly convincing that many Canadians are incorrect in believing that we have “the best health care system in the world.” There are many reasons why the Canadian health care system is ranked this low I will be discussing two of these issues in this article.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Westernization In Canada

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Lastly, the prolonged delays from medical offices and lack of availability of treatment, consequently causes individuals to suffer through their injuries or needs, merely by waiting to receive a second chance at life. Frequently, socialist countries that provide free healthcare, have lengthy waiting list as there are various patients needing care, consequently, making it difficult to access treatment at a reasonable time (“Healthcare wait times…, 2016:1). Many Canadians have experienced such extensive periods of delayed appointments with specialists and doctors, as from the years before, gradually the waiting times has been increasing and it 15.6 weeks in Ontario, the lowest of all the provinces, while New Brunswick has the extended time at…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yearly the average Canadian family will pay around $20,000 in healthcare taxes. The government doesn’t take into account living expenses, whether that be shelter, food or other forms of bills and taxes. Tommy Douglas envisioned universal health care for all and paid for by taxpayers. All of the provinces didn’t agree at the beginning. With the help of Lester Pearson - a member of the Liberal party- universal health care was administered. Canada is a one-tier country as a whole. One-tier means the government and taxpayers pay for everything. The government will pay for Canada's health care, senior pensions, and income assistance, they will not pay for prescription drugs or dental care. Canadians need insurance for both prescription drugs and dental. Canada is known for a short wait time, but it depends on where you go and how serious your illness or problem. Canada does not have first come, first serve. Bacchus Barua, a senior economist, said. “Excessively long wait times remain a defining characteristic of Canada’s health-care system, but this year is the longest we’ve ever seen and that should trouble all Canadians.” The average wait for treatment in Alberta is 22.9 weeks, yet the shortest average time is 15.6 weeks in Ontario. Canadians have health care available to everyone in all parts of the country. Taxes might be more, but our costs are far cheaper. As long you are a Canadian citizen, you…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kaplan, R., Porter, M., (2011, September). How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care. Harvard Business Review, 48-49.…

    • 4874 Words
    • 140 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, in Canada there are two types of health care systems. The current and most predominant system is the public health care system, which offers health care to everyone who needs it with little or no costs. The other form of health care that is making a recent wave in health care is called a two-tier health care system. This type of health care offers both a current public system as well as a for-profit parallel private system. Each one of these health care options can be beneficiary in many of the same or different ways. The following research essay will describe…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Since 1947, Canada has taken pride in its publicly funded, universal health care system and has successfully provided exceptional health care to all Canadian citizens. Founded by Tommy Douglas, the Medicare system, eventually leading to the Canadian Health Act of 1984, paved the way for today’s health care system in Canada (Bryant, 2010). Boasting free health care coverage to every Canadian, the Canadian Health Act promises more than it can realistically live up to. As times continue to change, pressures to do more plague the Canadian health care system in spite of slower rates of advancement and expansion in resources. Diminishing access to care, increased numbers of patients, and intolerable wait times are some examples of issues that have been of high concern to the government and general public. For years, tedious waiting times have become a deepening rift in Canada’s health care system. A waiting list commonly refers to a roster of people in need of medical attention who are pending a specific service. In theory, they are present when the demand for specific medical attention exceeds the instantly available supply (Mcdonald et al, 1998). With minor exceptions, Canadian waiting lists, like most countries, are non-regulated, generally unsupervised, and in dire need of reform. Specialized treatments, surgeries and many other procedures that do not fall under the category of “medically necessary” are commonly pushed to the side while cases that require immediate attention take precedence (Bryant, 2010). ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬What follows is a discussion of the shortcomings of the current Canadian Healthcare system. These issues continue to emerge as a major blemish in the Canadian system. Namely, a lack of doctors, uneven distribution of health care practitioners between and within provinces, and the non-standardization of wait lists have had significant impacts on Canadian wait times, ultimately risking adaptation to a private health care system. By…

    • 1968 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Waiting too long to receive treatment and lack of quality care can have serious effects on patients. Not only will their medical condition deteriorate, but an ample amount of financial pressure is also added to the family, as the person may not be able to work. This is intolerable and we need to speed up the treatment and ensure quality care is available for every patient by enforcing an option of private care for those who can afford to pay and get faster…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Plastic Surgery

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages

    I have included the raw data in the appendix to this submission. We have tried to use the latest available data sets from sources independent to our section in order be fair and accurate in our claims. I am happy to provide all additional documentation and supporting evidence for items in this submission as required. The goal of this submission is to protect the provision of public hospital based plastic surgery services in the province of BC. Recent media attention in the Vancouver Sun has brought light to the long waits our patients face in the public system: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Operation+Delayed/7494235/story.html Part of the public issue relates to limited hospital resources in the BC public health care system. Barriers to recruitment are primarily driven by availability of OR time and the willingness of Health Authorities to provide the necessary resources for new surgeons. Low remuneration does affect recruitment in areas of the province that are chronically underserviced since competitive rural opportunities exist across Canada even when major urban areas are well staffed. Our main issue as a section is retention of surgeons within the public system and this is primarily driven by significant intra and inter-provincial income discrepancies that put us near the bottom of all surgical specialties.…

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays