2005-99
September 15, 2005For immediate release
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh issued this statement on the occasion of first anniversary of First Ministers agreement on a 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care:
One year ago today, Prime Minister Paul Martin and all First Ministers signed on to the $41.3 billion 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care; a contract with the people of Canada to restore confidence in our universal, public health care system by reducing wait times for needed care and increasing the accountability of all governments to Canadians for health system performance.
This pledge was reinforced by a willingness among First Ministers to hold their own feet to the fire, by agreeing both to specific deadlines to report progress to Canadians, as well as to targets to achieve meaningful change. The first of these is a pledge to report to citizens by December 31, 2005 on the establishment of benchmarks for medically acceptable wait times, starting with five priority wait times areas identified in the 10 year Plan: cancer, heart, diagnostic imaging, joint replacements, and sight restoration. This pledge also includes the continued development of comparable indicators of access to health care professionals, diagnostic and treatment procedures.
In the year since, federal, provincial and territorial governments have been working hard to live up to this contract by taking important steps to organize and manage the health care system, so as to improve timely access to quality care.
Since the signing of the 10-Year Plan, the Government of Canada has announced additional investments that are are contributing to an array of initiatives directed towards wait times reduction; improving the health of Aboriginal peoples; accelerating and expanding procedures for integrating internationally educated doctors and nurses; buying new medical equipment; improving data collection and reporting on health system performance.
In order to facilitate the realization of the commitments made in the 10-Year Plan, the Prime Minister and I appointed a Federal Advisor on Wait Times - Dr. Brian Postl, CEO of the Winnipeg Health Authority - who is working with governments, health care providers and researchers to advance action to achieve meaningful reductions in wait times and use innovative tools to effectively manage and reduce wait times. Stakeholders have also made progress and have proposed benchmarks for the five priority wait times areas identified in the 10 year Plan.
All provinces and territories are taking action and making progress in reducing wait times through various investments and innovative initiatives. Investments are funding purchases of advanced equipment, scheduling of thousands of additional surgical procedures, new spaces in medical schools and of web-based tools that Canadians can use to monitor wait times directly. Most importantly, wait times are dropping.
Real progress has been made in the past 12 months. There are clear reasons for optimism. There remains much to be done in other areas. Targets and time lines for improvement have been agreed upon. Canadians expect these targets to be achieved and the deadlines to be met. I want to assure Canadians that Canada's governments will continue to strive towards the ultimate goal of a strengthened and renewed health care system.
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Media Enquiries:
Adèle Blanchard
Office of Minister Dosanjh
Minister of Health
(613) 957-0200
Public Enquiries:
(613) 957-2991
1-866 225-0709
