Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
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4. Physical and human resources<br />
The non-financial inputs into the Canadian health system include buildings,<br />
equipment, in<strong>for</strong>mation technology and the health work<strong>for</strong>ce. The ability<br />
of any health system to provide timely access to quality health services<br />
depends not only on the sufficiency of physical and human resources but also<br />
on finding the appropriate balance among them (Romanow, 2002). Both the<br />
sufficiency and the balance of resources need to be adjusted continually by<br />
F/P/T governments in response to the constantly evolving technology, health<br />
care practices and health needs of Canadians.<br />
From the mid-1970s until 2000, capital investment in hospitals declined.<br />
Small hospitals were closed in many parts of <strong>Canada</strong> and acute care services<br />
were consolidated. Despite recent reinvestments by provincial and territorial<br />
governments in hospital stock, in particular in medical equipment, imaging<br />
technologies and ICT, the number of acute care beds per capita has continued to<br />
fall, in part a result of the increase in day surgeries and discharges. While most<br />
of <strong>Canada</strong>’s supply of advanced diagnostic technologies is roughly comparable<br />
to levels in other OECD countries, it scores poorly in terms of its effective use<br />
of ICT relative to other high-income countries.<br />
After a lengthy period in the 1990s when the supply of physicians and nurses,<br />
as well as other public health care workers, contracted because of government<br />
cutbacks, the health work<strong>for</strong>ce has grown since 2000. The number of private<br />
sector health professionals has seen even more substantial growth during this<br />
period. Medical and nursing faculties have expanded in order to produce more<br />
graduates. At the same time, there has been an increase in the immigration of<br />
<strong>for</strong>eign-educated doctors and nurses and lower emigration to other countries<br />
such as the United States.<br />
4. Physical and human resources