Snapshot of Canada’s 4 health care priorities

Canadians take pride in their universal health care systems, but the COVID-19 pandemic — combined with a growing population — has placed enormous strain on health resources. Hospitals are at or over capacity, surgeries and procedures have been delayed and there is increasing need for mental health services. Adding to the pressures, health care providers are burned out and some are leaving their profession.

Today, provinces and territories are working to turn things around. They’re focusing on shortening wait times and trying new approaches to delivering primary health care and mental health services. They’re building the health workforce Canadians trust to be there for them by seeking ways to enlist new care providers and reduce stress on those already in the system. 

These are big and complex problems, and during discussions in February 2023 on funding health care for the next decade, the Government of Canada and the provincial and territorial governmentsFootnote i agreed to work together to improve Canadian health care in 4 priority areas:

• Expanding family health services and improving access to primary health care
• Increasing the supply of health workers and decreasing backlogs in care to support resilient health systems
• Improving access to mental health and substance use services
• Modernizing health care information systems and digital tools for secure sharing of electronic health information

There was an acknowledgment that strong data is essential for delivering safe and effective care. Good data lets us compare places with longer or shorter waits for surgery to see why patients in one province get new hips faster than those in another. Good data also lets us track different approaches to substance use care and learn what works for some people but not others. Careful study and exchange of data could alert us when another pandemic is on the way. 

Data will also be key to measuring progress. As part of their agreement, governments are working with CIHI to improve health by collecting, sharing and learning from carefully gathered health information, while keeping Canadians up to date on improvements to data and health systems. 
 
It will take time to align the different data systems and measurements that exist in the provinces and territories. In some areas of health care we have reliable, high-quality data. In others, the data is less mature. We’re working with partners including Statistics Canada, Canada Health Infoway and the provinces and territories to address these challenges. This first report offers a snapshot of common information available now on each of the 4 priorities. Some of that information is a few years old, and some provinces and territories have made meaningful progress in that time, including having data specifically for their jurisdiction.

CIHI will continue to work closely with partners to collect more data and improve measurement for future reports. This will include developing new indicators and refining existing ones to measure progress on the shared health priorities.

All levels of government are united in their recognition of the importance of creating a robust health information system as the foundation for transforming health care. There is a great deal of work to be done, and we look forward to working with partners across the country to provide the data we need to improve our health systems and outcomes for Canadians.