Canada’s health care fares poorly when compared to Western Europe

The Winnipeg based Frontier Centre for Public Policy has issued findings of a comparative study of health-care quality indicators such as wait times, patient rights and information, primary care and access to medical records by a patient. The study examined Canadian standards in relation to that of 29 European countries. Although Canada spends generously on health care the study found that it was not receiving a good return on its investment. Its performance was particularly dismal on wait times where it placed last. It fared scarcely better in the exercise of patient’s rights and access to information as it was graded in a tie for 28th spot out of 30 nations. These are systemic problems which should be addressed by better management of resources to reduce wait times and access to health care and through the use of better communication models and protocols to allow the proper exercise of rights and access to information. Thankfully in respect of clinical outcomes Canada compared well with the best performing health care systems which reflects well upon the skill and care of its health care professionals.

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