According to a global study on effective primary health care for patients that was released by the Commonwealth Fund, Canada ranks much lower than other developed countries, except the U.S.
In the survey conducted on over 6,000 doctors in 7 countries, it was found that Canada lagged in several aspects including wait times for tests, usage of electronic medical records, doctors availability after hours, multi-discipline teams for treatment of chronic illness and financial incentives for care quality improvement.The survey reveals that Canada is far behind several other countries like New Zealand, Australia, U.K., Netherlands and Germany.
The after-hour care facilities are available with only 47% of the doctors in Canada whereas in Netherlands it is 95%. The same in the U.S. is 40%.
According to a Canadian official, a lot of improvement is needed in the country.
"While we are certainly not celebrating the results," said Frank Fedyk, acting assistant deputy health minister, "we are happy to note that they confirm what we already know, areas where we are, in fact, already taking action."
Source-Medindia
GYT
