For years, the news surrounding our health-care system has been that of panic, frustration and being overwhelmed. This was magnified by the pandemic and, since then, facilities and staff at all levels have not recovered. Change is urgently needed.
From my experience working as a paramedic in both emergency and primary care, I have noticed two factors that would help ease the burden on our province’s (and country’s) system, while at the same time increasing the health of all Canadians.
Firstly, primary care must be recognized and emphasized as the most important aspect of our system. Increasing access to it and emphasizing it everywhere will positively affect all successive levels of care. Our health-care system can no longer be looked at as a pyramid with doctors at the top; it is multi-faceted, and all providers must work together to provide efficient care.
Emphasizing primary care means ensuring that everyone has a doctor. Provincial wait-list programs for getting a family doctor must be eliminated; these have proven inefficient and take the onus off the public to proactively find a provider and take care of their health. Resources should be provided on how to find a family practitioner and why this is crucial for them and our system.
Additionally, nurse practitioners (NP) must be recognized as an integral part of the primary care network and be encouraged to work and stay in Alberta. This will decrease our historical reliance on doctors, which are fewer and more expensive. Incentives must be created to encourage nurses to become NPs, and NPs must be allowed to have their own clinics and direct bill.
And incentives and requirements must be put in place by provincial governments for new graduates to work in areas that require primary care providers, for example, providing education grants in exchange for providing care to rural areas/critical areas. This will only work and last if it is done simultaneously with an increased emphasis on health education and empowerment for the public in these areas (rural areas, reserves, northern Alberta and Canada, etc.).
The second way to improve our health-care system is to prioritize health education. One way to do this is to have mandatory curriculum in junior and senior high schools that covers first aid and common ailments, conditions and how to treat them, including information on all basic over-the-counter medications.
Curriculum for these classes should include an emphasis on primary care — what it is, who offers it, where to find it and the importance of everyone having a primary care provider. Courses could be created and taught by a nurse, paramedic or NP, and could include a visit from an owner of a primary care clinic to discuss what they do and how (billing, access, referrals, requisitions, specialists, etc.). They could include real-world examples/experiences to show why this is important.
In addition, it is essential to educate the public on the many different tiers of our health-care system — where to go and when. This moves the responsibility to the patient to take care of their health rather than the system. Our health-care system is only designed to provide the public with care needs above and beyond what they are capable of themselves.
And we need to emphasize the importance of health workers as not just caregivers but as educators, beginning in post-secondary health-care programs (RN, paramedic, etc.). This is the importance of empowering our patients and the public to proactively learn and take care of their bodies, illnesses and conditions. It is essential that medical professionals realize the importance of their role in educating and empowering the public.
Implementing these strategies will ensure a more efficient system and healthy Canadians.
Alan Slagorsky is a paramedic with experience in both emergent and primary care. He currently works in Calgary with AHS.