Introduction
In Canada, restructuring the health care systems has been common and is determined to affect the areas of quality, availability, and expediency of the people’s access to the services through the hospitals and long-term care facilities. One of the main objectives of the Canadian Health Care policy is that quality health care could be difficult for the Canadians to access care that points out to provide the resources needed for the well-being of the Canadians (Health Canada,2002).
The limitation for the health care expenditures has been one of Canada’s objectives. The governments in the areas of provinces have done funding allocations for the parts that are considered to be benefited the most. Difficulties with the economic situation have put on an important position when it comes to the financial limitations that are given to the provincial governments. The funds for the health care systems have come to the point of being minimized and are viewed to have difficulties to have a positive outcome (Daiski, 2005).
With that in mind, the crisis in the health care system of Canada has been referred to have funding cuts, and the quality, availability, and convenience are being questioned by the researchers. It appeared to be unclear to maintain a national health care principle that will be recognized as one and will be made available for each individual (Daiski, 2005). Some arguments are viewed when it comes to the delivery of good health care services for the people because of the funding crisis that many institutions are going through over the past few years. However, a list of the medical services is then important to present to further assess the efficiency of the hospitals and other related institutions for providing health care. This is specifically due to the effective care that would be suitable for making possible results for the use of available funding resources and for giving high-end quality services.
Moreover, there are questions regarding the sustainability of the health care systems. There have been increases particularly in the health care expenditures and the government somehow opposes the fact that the health care system might be unsustainable it this will be to crowd out other priorities of the government. However, the main point of the funding cuts should fall under the issue of providing quality health care services, as well as the accessibility and expediency of the systems despite what is happening.
Discussion
The issues about the efficiency of the health care system operations should be raised to explain the important details that are needed to view the quality, accessibility, and expediency. Efficiency may mean differently for the field of health care. Since funding cuts are involved in this given case, this shows an effort that should be recognized through the accurate allocation of physical, human, and financial resources that will make the priorities of the hospitals for the decision-making process in a stable manner.
Quality
Quality of service considers the level of performance that a particular hospital may provide to satisfy the needs of the patients. Thus, the workforce largely affects the provision of understanding the measures for quality of service. This is through the appointment of nursing staff, medical professionals, and other significant players in the health care system into a role that will contribute to assuring the Canadians that they will get the best quality of health (Josephson and Bunkers, 2004).
The Canadian healthcare system has done major restructurings that have resulted in the start of restructuring the work environments of nursing before the year the 2000s ends. This includes the shift of jobs, the development of strategic alliances between the hospitals, and the rationalization. The media stated that the restructuring instance could lead to the loss of thousands of nursing jobs. Many reports were tagged that walked around the reactions of nurses to the restructuring in the Canadian healthcare system. No work has been made that assesses the things that relate with the nurse executives to re-establish the nursing workforce following this period of restructuring and the ways that are being used to keep an eye on the ongoing nursing expenditures in a period of financial accountability. Hall (2005) pointed out that the quality of service has been decreased because of the efforts to restructure the hospitals in Canada. Because of shortages in the funds, it appears to harm nurses and the work environment of nurses. The nurse executives are then given the challenge of recreating a hospital nursing workforce during the times that a shortage will come out. Nurses are also given much responsibility for exerting the highest effort of providing a high-end quality of service for the patients and the people of Canada in general (Hall, 2005).
The assessment for such a case is considered as a major factor for determining the quality of service do health care system provides in Canada. However, quality may still depend on the type of facilities that the hospitals have and how they are managed well by the staff.
Availability
Researches on the accessibility of health care for Canadians showed varied results and has been specific on the programs that are used. One is the evaluation of the Health Bus in Toronto, Canada which is a healthcare unit mobile intended to give services in a large city (Daiski, 2005). This mobile health care unit can be described as having no fancy diagnostic facilities that only have little basic machines such as those needed for the blood pressure and thermometers. A focus is given to the views of clients in terms of how the services can be developed into a better one. The suggestions for nurses and other healthcare service providers regarding the ideas to care and campaign should be further justified as well as the policies for healthcare and the political action.
Accessibility in the Toronto’s Health bus depicts a system that becomes accessible for the people of such areas most especially the poor ones. When shortages started on the social programs over the last few years, homelessness and poverty had been an impact for the cities in Canada wherein people have had difficulties in getting the best and suitable health care for the members of the family. In addition, the morbidity and mortality rates in the area of the poor are relatively high compared to the overall populations (Raphael, 2004).
The health bus is certainly patterned to meet the needs of the people in poor areas. It works with the cooperation of the community agencies like the shelters and out-of-cold programs which primarily help people to get a shelter that would help them get the benefit of meeting a specific need. The health bus is present at a given area more often than not once a week and is composed of nurse staff. This is seen to provide a beneficial care system for the people though but still, it needs to be further assessed. When the funds are made available from the Community Health Center where it is included, a study was started by the Community Advisory Panel (Daiski, 2005).
Indeed, one of the biggest issues to healthcare services is the lack of its availability and the institutions need to become suppler in giving the required services. An inconvenient office hour forces people in general to use the expensive emergency departments. It adds up to the increasing point of view and a more costly and longer treatment process (Josephson and Bunkers, 2004). As the clients recommended, the availability of the major medical care could be developed more through giving services that are deeply extended at a specific period and place that will be convenient for the people such as the ideas presented by the Health Bus. On the other hand, the transportation to the main sites could also be made available and office hours are longer than usual. Health Bus is seen to give fair treatment as an institutional norm in healthcare which is needed to ease the increasing marginalization and the poor health of an increasing segment of the number of people in the area. The shelter may not be the answer for the health of the people because infestations of insects are common and diseases usually come from the outbreaks in Toronto shelters. The untreated mental illnesses create further safety risks to the people and others. Healthy living conditions that will cater to all the people in the area are vital in promoting health and well-being as well as preventing illnesses (Josephson and Bunkers, 2004).
Another specification in the sense of accessibility is the availability of telehealth. This is the innovation for the health care system through visual communication between the health care professionals and the patients for consultation or perhaps educational training. Funding may be cut short but this innovation has come to be important for giving the people more convenience in acquiring health care (Raphael, 2004). Telehealth has largely emerged in health care. Before struggles fall under the analysis and management of the patients in a distant and rural area of Canada and this impacted on the mortality and morbidity rate (Saqui et al., 2007). The changes that are listed in the diagnosis of the patients and the treatment plan had been a result of the telehealth consultation and are seen to be a factor that helped lessen the morbidity and prevent the unwanted expensive treatment, transfer of patients, and the costs of traveling as well.
More studies and analysis should then be defined to be able to give support the clinical efficiency of telehealth. This is to make a substantiation of the constant understanding of telemedicine and a third-party compensation for the services that are being offered. In addition, some studies centered on the presentation of the effect of telehealth on the changes when it comes to the diagnosis of the patients and the just treatment plan (Saqui et al., 2007).
As Hall (2005) stated in his study, the availability of health care may still depend on the efficacy of the lines of communication between the health care providers and the patients. In Canada, the availability can give a challenge for the twenty percent of the general population most especially those who are living in rural locations. Accordingly, the rural Canadians may be forced to carry on severe climatic conditions and prevail a topographic barrier to achieve the nearest correct health care, provider. This kind of travel illustrates an additional responsibility to that of any preexisting disease and may confound the reception of the treatment with the probable serious consequences.
Expediency
Relatively, the expediency arises through the given context in the justification of the availability of the health care programs for the people specifically those who are largely affected by the financial cuts. On the 9th of September, the McGuinty government stated the plans of changing the health care system in a better strategy to meet the health care needs of Ontarians through minimizing the wait times and bringing health services into the ease of people (CNW Group, 2003). The government is taking health care to its normal and important steps in creating a common and incorporated system of care that is framed with communities and motivated by the needs of the patient. The new health results team will be the ones who will execute and initiate the changes for the better quality, availability, and convenience of the people in Canada through assisting the government with the coordination and implementation of the new structures of the health care system.
Health Canada (2002) included the Health InfoStructure Support Program that backs up the assessment of the use of the innovations on the technologies and applications in the health field by the projects mentioned earlier such as the Health Bus and the Telehealth. The OHIH, likewise, presents the Canadian government’s consideration of the important details that enable the role of information and communication technologies to be widely used in the health sector, and this is done to improve the expediency of health care systems. As the main point of Health Canada about the issues concerning the use of technology in healthcare, the strategic plans of OHIH points out the development of knowledge, collaborations, and policy development (Health Canada, 2002).
OHIH supported many actions that have facilitated the studies and tests for the application of information technology which could not have been backed up by the local level of the government such as the Health Info-Structure Support Program. The health transition fund of Canada is mainly a shared project by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to back up and motivate the evidence-based process of decision-making in health care (Health Canada, 2002). It evaluates the studies across Canada which will make sure people have the convenience of acquiring health care that is for them.
Conclusion
The effects of the constant restructuring of Canada’s health care system greatly affect the quality, availability, and expediency for accessibility of the Canadians. Quality comes into the poor benefits that people get from the discrepancies in the funding systems that somehow impacted the promotion of a healthy being. In Toronto, Canada, it is viewed that the area has been exposed to the problems of the rural populations on the illnesses and diseases they encounter. Rural and distant areas usually encounter difficulties in accessing the hospitals and other medical institutions and thus many patients do not get the right medications and consultations for the health problems that they are facing.
As such, a point of view of an ordinary individual who lives in a community of the given scenarios, Canada should then allot more funds for the medical institutions which will favor to the areas that are less fortunate for such benefits and allot more health buses on specific locations where accessibility appears to be very difficult for the people to acquire health care. Knowing how the people interact with the health care providers through the process of regular checkups should also be put on a highlight because this will give the response from the patients whether quality, availability, and expediency have been met.
Health bus is an excellent way of improving the health services for the people that do not have easy access to medical institutions. In reaction to the determined recurring patterns of cutbacks of nursing over the past few years, there has been a long-term labor market strategy for the groups of nurses in Canada which particularly accounts for the nurses in Ontario. Accordingly, the remarkable force has been made through the series of events, initiatives, and the results that are described in the prevailing issues. Good allocation of strategic planning should be evaluated by the government to come up with an organized system of health care through Canada, most importantly the rural areas. The shortage of health care professionals has to be managed well considering that the health care system is placed for long-term care sustainability through the availability of extensive options for giving a good quality of service that takes account for the costs and human resource power.
Standards set the level for the measurement of the quality of care and services indeed. The development of quality programs involving the significant details, reporting tools, and assessment of plans have been the main point of health care organizations. Thus, the programs should be more developed into an effective one to meet the expected care that the people want. Even though a national accreditation program had been visible in the hospitals over the last years, Canadian Council on Health Services appeared to be just recent, and hence it needs more improvement to perform well (Health Canada, 2002). Activities that will focus on giving quality programs will affect and reflect on each individual through the participation of the accreditation teams. It is suggested that further improvement on the tools such as workload measurement programs would inform the development of staffing models which will promote the consistency of care and flexible scheduling and contribute to the patient and health care provider’s satisfaction. Therefore, quality, availability, and expediency are affected by the instability health care system in Toronto, Canada. The government should be supportive enough for the changes that it may bring in the future and help Canadians achieve a healthy life.
References
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Health Canada. (2002). Canada Health Act. 2008. Web.
Josephson, D. K., & Bunkers, S. S. (2004). “Eighth Street Bridge: A dream of human becoming”. Nursing Science Quarterly, 17(2), 122-127.
Raphael, D. (Ed.). (2004). Social determinants of health: Canadian perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Saqui, O. et al. (2007) “Telehealth Videoconferencing: Improving Home Parenteral Nutrition Patient Care to Rural Areas of Ontario, Canada”, Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 31; 234.