Globe and Mail - Health care: Ottawa seeks one national accord, not separate pacts
Ottawa plans to negotiate a single national health accord, not separate agreements with each of the provinces and territories, the federal health minister says.
"We want one agreement," Leona Aglukkaq said Monday in St. John's. She said the position was non-negotiable.
On Monday, a blue-ribbon panel presented a report to CMA delegates entitled Resourcing Options for Sustainable Health Care in Canada. The gist of the 32-page report is that Canada's health system needs to be transformed from one in which the focus is acute care, to one in which the focus is chronic care and, to do so, services have to be funded differently.
"The problem with our system is not a lack of money, but rather the failure to realize that an acute care model is not our best option," said Sister Elizabeth Davis, a long-time healthcare administrator. She is one of six expert advisers to the CMA. The others are former Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard, economist Don Drummond, former hospital CEO Tony Dagnone, health economist John Horne and director of Ï㽶ÊÓƵ school of social work Wendy Thomson.
