Dr. Tara Kiran, a family doctor at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, consulted with nearly 10,000 people across Canada to understand their perspectives and priorities for a better primary care system in Canada. The people she spoke with highlighted challenges with the health workforce as one of the key challenges facing the health care system.
We asked her to share the findings at Health Workforce Canada Connects, our first conference focused on solutions to support a strong and healthy health workforce.
Here’s what they said:
- Focus on diversity and inclusion:
- Make training in cultural safety, humility and anti-discrimination mandatory, and include community perspectives in curriculum
- Facilitate barrier-free pathways to primary care education, especially among equity-deserving communities, Indigenous communities and in the North
- Incorporate Indigenous perspectives in the medical curriculum and integrate Indigenous models of care.
- Make health professional recruitment and retention a priority:
- Accelerate the process for integrating internationally trained health professionals
- Increase the number of residency spots, with special attention to equity-deserving communities
- Reduce administrative burden and improve working conditions
- Enhance recruitment and incentives for health-care workers to settle and stay in the province.
- Move forward with team-based care
- Expand team-based care in the community to improve capacity in the system, reduce provider burnout and provide more holistic care
- Start in areas of greatest need
- Scale existing community-based models where different types of health professionals like nurses, social workers and pharmacists work alongside doctors.
- Empower patients and be transparent
- Strengthen community involvement in health-care policy, delivery and measurement
- Educate the public on their rights
- Help them navigate the system
- Measure and report on system performance.
To read more about the OurCare initiative, visit www.ourcare.ca.
*Dr. Kiran is a Scientist at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s Hospital and the Fidani Chair of Improvement and Innovation, University of Toronto.