Published by Senator Marilyn Trenholme Counsell (retired) on 15 October 2008
What would you expect from a family-doc-turned parliamentarian people-watching at New Brunswick’s Parlee Beach on a hot summer day? Jelly fish counting? No, what really jerked me out of my holiday reverie was fat – not omega-3’s, but the kind on our bellies. If you want to study our country’s ongoing battle with obesity, let me tell you a crowded beach is the place.
Obesity is a topic right up there with the economy and the environment as a national crisis. Heart attacks waiting to happen, salt-induced strokes, kids being told they won’t live as long as their parents.
We need to tackle obesity just like we tackled smoking, and it has to begin with parents and their children. Unless we raise healthy children, we will never have a healthy nation, and there will never be enough money to make our health care system meet the needs of Canadians.
Our Health Act sets Canada apart, even today, as a country where you go to a doctor because you are sick not because you have a gold card. The Act is as sound today as it was in 1964, but the rising health-care costs mean that governments can’t keep up with demands and expenses. The question is this: can we use the billions we spend in health care more efficiently and more effectively? Can we do more to make our health care system patient-focused?
Back at the cottage, two locals are complaining about this very system and about waiting. One has had to wait months to get the necessary referrals for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The other can’t get into his family doctor to get his knee checked. He’s really mad because his golf is suffering. Waiting, waiting, waiting! The system is great… Once the waiting is over… At least until the next time.
So far, what we’ve achieved on wait-times is pathetic: we are a little better when it comes to cataracts, radiation therapy, and hip and knee surgeries in some provinces. Far too many Canadians are far too angry with all the waiting.
That is why Canada has to commit to finding 5000 more family doctors. Young ones, not old ones like me sitting on the beach! Family doctors, nurse practitioners, health care professionals and medical specialists in most categories are needed urgently. You can see how tough this might be.
That’s why the delivery of health care has to be smarter. We need the brains of some of Canada’s best CEO’s and other experts to advise our Health Ministers and our hospital administrators on innovative ways to solve this problem. And it’s not just care in hospitals and doctors’ offices that needs greater efficiency. It’s also long term care and home care. Just look at New Brunswick (the province I have the honour of representing in Parliament) for a system where in-hospital care merges seamlessly with homecare and the result is a system that works reasonably well.
Physicians have to change too. We need a vast reformation of the system using new technology in every way imaginable. Every possible health care professional must work with their colleagues in genuine collaboration, putting patients first. The ‘me’ in the system has to become the ‘we’ because the old ways are not getting the job done. We have the brains in the system; what we lack all too often is the vision and the willingness to let change happen.
Healthy children or healthy Canadians? Where do we start? Where did we start with smoking? The answer is simple: in the media, in our schools, on the streets, in the workplace. It isn’t easy to change lifestyles – to get Canadians moving literally and figuratively towards leaner and fitter bodies. Like everything worthwhile it will take national will, national leadership and buy in by millions of men and women, girls and boys from coast to coast to coast. Let’s do it!
We Canadians are not doing our part. We are not putting health first in our lives and in our homes. We cry for help when our bodies say enough is enough. We expect the “all-you-can-eat buffet” of ‘free’ health care to be there on demand.
Average Canadians, health care professionals and governments have to find new ways to live healthier lives. Building a healthy nation begins with raising healthy children from the moment of conception. Lifelong health requires lifelong learning and vigilance.
Beside the salty water on Canada’s beautiful east coast is a fine place to reflect on life. Salt is a killer on one hand, a preservative on the other, but always something to be taken in moderation. The lesson in all of this is that life is precious, health is precious and our health care system is precious, worthy of our best efforts to protect it, individually and collectively.
Every one of us who waits too long for the excellent care that our doctors, nurses and health care professionals can offer us, suffers because we haven’t done enough to make the Canada Health Act work. We haven’t done our part to keep ourselves and our families healthy. We haven’t taken time on the beach to resolve to reshape our lives with solid benchmarks and with moderation in all things. Let’s do it now!