Over the past few years, access to quality health care has become a prominent public concern. Media reports have provided a litany of anecdotal evidence documenting a growing problem. These real events, however, are often dismissed as unfortunate exceptions. Canadians do not appear to be concerned about which level of government does the job either, as long as it gets done. In addition, physicians need to be included in the determination of data needs and the interpretation of the information.
Physicians also have a significant role to play in providing the evidence.
In short, the primary focus of health care reform has been to cut the cost of health care rather than concern for quality and access to care. There are legitimate reasons for controlling cost in any health care system. With waiting periods affecting many Canadians' access to health care services, systems are needed to ensure equitable, timely and appropriate access to treatment. In spite of claims by all levels of government that they are managing the system within a total quality management or continuous quality improvement framework, there is little evidence that these approaches are being used to measure access problems experienced by patients. These approaches involve the identification of customer needs, the support of team building and the use of statistical methods to monitor systems.