A quarter of Canadians over 45 struggled to access health care in 2020: survey – CTV
Feb. 19, 2023
A quarter of Canadians over 45 experienced challenges accessing health-care services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to survey results published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) this month.
However, the degree to which people were affected depended on factors like race, immigration status, sex, age and education and income levels.
As COVID-19 spread in 2020, health-care providers coped with the strain of patients sick with the virus by cancelling elective surgeries and in-person appointments and turning more to virtual care. Nationally, emergency department visits and inpatient admission levels dropped by 24 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Home and primary care services were also affected.
