HEALTH CARE IN CANADA

Health Care in Canada

Health Care in Canada

Introduction

The Canadian health care system is funded by the state and is best described as a system of insurance and medical plans of ten provinces and three territories. This system known as Medicare and provides free or nearly free health care for all Canadians. This structure was designed so that health care is in the department of local, local authorities, and not the federal government. Health system of each province or territory has common principles that are established at the national level. Management and delivery of health services - an area of responsibility of each province or territory. Province or territory plan, assess the provision and financing of hospital care, services, therapists and other professional (Pink et al, 2006).

The role of the federal government in the health care system is limited to the establishment of and compliance with the general principle of Medicare, partial funding of health programs, provinces or territories and other functions specified in the constitution of Canada. One such feature is the direct medical care for exceptional groups of Canadian citizens, which include veterans, Aboriginal Canadians living in reserves, and military employees of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Other functions are prevention and protection of public health and promoting healthy lifestyles (Elshaug et al, 2009).

Canada's health system relies heavily on primary care physicians, who make up about 51% of all practicing physicians in Canada. They are a transmission link between the patient and the formal health system, and control access to most specialists, hospital care, diagnostic tests and write down prescription for drugs. Such a family physician can be changed an unlimited number of times by the advice of friends or a change of mood (Benoit, 2011).

Health Care in Canada - Emerging Issues in 2010

H1N1

Where SARS (2004) did not reach pandemic proportions, H1N1 did. In 2009, Canada had the opportunity to implement lessons learned from the SARS outbreak. By multiple accounts it did so effectively and with little disruption overall.

Almost half (41%) of the Canadian population was vaccinated against H1N1 in 2009.

All told, 428 Canadians were reported to have died from H1N1 between April 2009 and April 2010. In dollar amounts, Canada spent an estimated $400 million on vaccines. By November 2009, estimates of the cost of Canada's response reached $1.5 billion (Benoit, 2011).

Medical Isotopes

Up until the closure of the Chalk River reactor in 2009, 40% of the world's supply of radioactive medical isotopes was produced by this facility (Elshaug et al, 2009).

Medical isotopes are used to diagnose and treat a variety of illnesses, such as cancer. They cannot be stockpiled or stored, so the disruption in the production of these isotopes required changes in care processes.

In June 2010, CIHI released the results of a special survey examining the impact of the supply disruption on the Canadian health care system. The results suggested that supply disruptions were experienced by health care providers. But, for the most part, providers were able to implement mitigating strategies, such as rescheduling ...