Taming of the Queue 2010

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Speech for Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health
March 25, 2010

Thank you Doctor Doig for your introduction.

Good afternoon everyone.

Let me begin by congratulating the Canadian Medical Association for organizing this conference.

It's a good opportunity to have valuable discussions with health professionals and policymakers.

In looking at this year's themes, I commend your emphasis on providing quality and timely health care in leaner times.

Today, our country faces challenges brought on by the deepest recession since the 1930's. This has created many challenges for all of us including the Health Community.

However, even though this may be the case, there have been gains on wait times in recent years.

And I think it's important we all consider the best ways we can secure and build on the progress that's been achieved.

I am a firm believer that key investments to our Healthcare system and the right education can prevent many illnesses.

As Minister of Health, I firmly believe we as Canadians have a role to play to stay healthy.

We must follow the advice we receive from the medical experts and eat properly and exercise properly.

Through education, we can encourage greater disease prevention.

Our healthcare system should be a last resort.

It's been an eventful year since I spoke at this conference last year.

In fact, my speech to this conference last year came just a few weeks before H1N1 emerged.

When I addressed the CMA's Annual General Meeting in August of last year, I said that "What may come in the fall is something that could test all of us - possibly to a limit we've never experienced."

Thankfully, we didn't experience a severe pandemic. However, H1N1 did put our pandemic plans to the test.

The efforts of the federal government, provinces and territories, First Nations and the medical community demonstrated we can all work together during challenging times.

We mounted the largest - most successful immunization campaign in our country's history.

We know that 2009 will not be the last year in which we face a pandemic.

So, now is the time to learn from our experience just as we have done in the past.

Looking back and fully assessing how we managed this public health event will help inform and improve future responses.

Unlike a pandemic, providing timely access to quality care is an everyday challenge within the health system.

But, as with pandemic preparedness, we need to devote sustained thought of how we maintain and improve our performance.

As I noted last year, the 2004 founding of this conference came in response to wait times being of immense concern to Canadians.

Today, the concern remains, but thanks to the commitments of governments, health professionals, and patients, we can see positive momentum.

Of course, I'm not alone in making this observation.

I'm joined by provincial and territorial governments, the Wait Times Alliance and the Health Council of Canada.

I'm also joined by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which released its latest wait times report just yesterday.

It shows continued progress in reducing wait times along with improvements by the provinces and territories on providing quality data to measure progress.

As of December 2009, a significant majority of Canadians needing treatment in priority areas - including hip fracture and replacement procedures, cataract surgery, and cancer radiation therapy - were getting it within recommended timeframes.

For example, in eight out of ten provinces, almost 90 percent of patients were receiving cancer radiation treatment within four weeks - which is up from less than 80 percent last year.

These improvements have come in many different ways.

One way has been through investments to the Health Care system. Since taking office, our government has committed not to cut Health Transfers to the provinces.

This was followed by more than one billion dollars in Budget 2007 to support each of the provinces and territories as they committed to establishing a guarantee in one clinical area.

Those agreements were announced on this very stage by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And three years later, it gives me great pleasure to talk about the progress we've seen.

The provinces and territories have made progress in establishing guarantees and I am fully confident they will meet their commitments in this area.

For example, I note the agreement reached just two months ago between the Atlantic Provinces where each province agreed to treat each other's residents if they are not able to receive cancer radiation treatment within the guaranteed timeframe.

I point as well to Manitoba, where a cancer radiation wait time guarantee has been implemented.

And to Quebec, which has implemented guarantees in hip and knee replacements and cataract removals - and where consideration is being given to expand guarantees to other procedures.

Guarantees, however, are just one part of governments' efforts to help reduce and manage wait times.

They complement initiatives already underway across the country.

For example, e-health plays an important role in managing wait times and helping assure quality.

I am pleased to say we are moving forward with the transfer of the 500 million dollars to Infoway as announced in the Budget.

In pledging a return to a balanced budget, we committed to avoid doing so on the backs of provinces and territories by cutting health and social transfers.

As a former territorial health Minister, I can personally attest to the value that this certainty will provide in an otherwise uncertain time.

Provinces and territories will surely be challenged in maintaining momentum during leaner times.

But they can now move forward knowing full well that we are standing behind the commitment to increase the Canada Health Transfer by six per cent annually to March 31st, 2014.

At that point, it will have reached more than 30 billion dollars.

Yet, despite this funding, I think we can all recognize that the economic situation holds challenges.

In some cases, provinces are facing some hard choices, which may result in challenges for medical professionals.

And although no one should take adversity lightly, one can take some heart in knowing that there is perhaps no profession more adept at dealing with adversity than the medical community.

As an example, I point to the global disruption in the supply of medical isotopes.

Faced with this situation, our health professionals have introduced new efficiencies.

They've also been making use of alternatives to maintain quality care.

The medical community's adaptation is beyond commendable.

It has stood strongly during this disruption, and it's now my pleasure to highlight action we're taking so that the community doesn't stand alone.

In addition to working toward getting the Chalk River reactor back up and running safely, Budget 2010 has invested 48 million dollars over two years for research, development and application of medical isotopes.

This includes a 35-million dollar investment in supporting research and development of new technologies to produce isotopes.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research will use 10 million dollars to fund a clinical trial network that will help move research on isotopes and imaging technologies into clinical practice.

And Health Canada will use three million dollars to work with stakeholders to share learning and develop tools that will help ensure the medical isotopes supply we do have is put to best and maximum use in our hospitals.

On top of this, our officials have continued to expedite the review of alternatives.

Most recently, we authorised a new source of Moly-99 from the Maria reactor in Poland.

We have committed to action in the form of new investments and pro-active regulatory action, and our commitment remains strong in the face of the challenge at hand.

The same can be said for our partnership on health care with the provinces and territories.

Just as fiscal prudence positioned Canada to respond strongly to the economic challenge of the recession, the course of austerity established by Budget 2010 will strengthen our position to respond to future challenges.

When it comes to healthcare specifically, we've acted decisively in the face of fiscal adversity to back our commitments and serve short-term needs.

And we're preparing for discussions with the provinces and territories on how to best serve the long terms needs of our universal health care system and the people it serves.

Working in partnership, we will face the challenges of the future, for the good health of Canadians and therefore, our country.

I would like to commend everyone in this room for your hard work in the past year.

Your work on the ground has been crucial in making sure patients receive quality and timely care.

Your commitment and resourcefulness is a big part of why our health care system is recognized as one of the best in the world.

Thank you