The country's nurses predict that in the not-too-distant future, it will be nurses, not doctors, who will deliver the bulk of primary care to patients, as the country moves away from hospital care and more toward community care.
Such a system could cure all the backlogs and inefficiencies that ail the country's health system, the Canadian Nurses Association said in a vision statement they released Thursday.
Dr. Ginette Lemire Rodger, chief of nursing at The Ottawa Hospital says the current health system will no longer be sustainable by 2020.
"It is a system that has served us well up to now, but it is not sustainable on the long term, because our population is getting older, because technology is changing, because there are even more types of professionals," she told 愛污传媒net.
CNA President Dr. Marlene Smadu says wait times and problems with access to health services can be eliminated by 2020 if changes to the roles of health-care professionals are embraced.
That means having nurses become the primary source of first-line care, as well as the main sources of health promotion. That would allow doctors and specialists to focus only on patients with complex conditions.
"The dramatic changes we envision in the future will mean that the role of the nurse and other partners in the health system needs to become more collaborative, team-based and streamlined," says Smadu.
The CNA expects that hospitals will soon only be used for short-stay and outpatient services, as well as critical and emergency care. Longer-term care and palliative care will shift instead to hospices, nursing homes and other community settings.
That will mean a significant increase in long-term and transitional living beds in the health system, along with alternative living options for seniors, says Rodger.
"We have to have a new vision to make sure that we move toward a system where hospitals are there for your acute episodic care that deals with emergency, with entrance of care and serious cases, and that the system has more beds to support long-term care, to support aging," she says.
The CNA believes that the health system will have to change because patient demands are changing as well. The patient of today relies less on their family doctor for medical information and more on information they're finding on their own.
That has resulted in a patient who is far better informed about their health and well-being than previous generations, the CNA says. And when they become ill, these patients tend to advocate for themselves, or through family members.
"By 2020, patients will be directly involved in many more decisions regarding their care, quality of life and health promotion at every age and stage of their lives," says Smadu.
Self-care will be the norm by 2020, the CNA predicts.
As well, technology will enable Canada's 13 provinces and territories -- which now operate as "mini" health systems -- to become more streamlined. The use of electronic health records that will be transferable and accessible to the patient will be key to this streamlining, the association says.
