Paul stressed the importance of regional input as well as the support and backing of physicians. The challenges facing the CHA, she noted, include primary care reform and a new model of physician remuneration. B.C.'s Simon Fraser Health Region has worked to bridge the gap between hospital and community services through a greater understanding of the continuum of care. By targeting areas where these services were needed, they've managed to improve utilization, measurable through a reduction in patients waiting for long-term care. Innovation in health care is facilitated if the changes are in accord with the principles outlined.
Implementation is then a matter of moving in the right direction when the opportunity presents.
Dr. Andrews said the public must also rethink its expectations of a public system, which can no longer be all things to all people. So we have to work out ways to do better. And the public has to realize they can't afford everything. Private care, on the other hand, is wasteful, he said. The free market doesn't work in medicine, in any country, anywhere.