Sept. 30, 2022
Imagine having a potentially shorter wait time for surgery or having ready access to a second – or possibly third – opinion on your diagnosis. In many pockets of Canada’s vast and complex health-care system, physicians have worked effectively for years as a team under a “shared-care” model. Some surgeons are hoping this form of patient care can be widely adopted across surgical specialties, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The strain placed on the system over the last two-and-a-half years prompted the head of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Katharine Smart, to warn in June that “the collapse of the current health-care system” is coming. Overworked nurses and doctors, staffing shortages, emergency rooms closures, and a backlog of surgeries during the worst periods of the pandemic are just a few of the many challenges that have exposed long-standing systemic issues, proving just how fragile Canada’s health-care system is. Meanwhile, concerns around patient care and surgical wait times – already an issue prior to the COVID-19 – have been exacerbated by the pandemic.