More Canadians should receive their main health care through teams of professionals so their increasingly complex needs can be met while not paying privately for it, the Canadian Medical Association said in a new report released Tuesday. The CMA's recommendations come after it undertook a major review of the interface of public and private care, as 6.5 million Canadians lack a family doctor, emergency departments burst at the seams and wait times for some surgeries mount.
Dr. Kathleen Ross, CMA president and a family physician in Coquitlam and New Westminster, B.C.
, called the primary care she offers the foundation and front door of Canada's health-care system. "We know something needs to change," Ross said. "It's not all about the medicines or pills that I prescribe.
" Team-based care offers advantages Ross gave her own clinic as an example of team-based care. She refers patients to counselling services and a dietitian, broadening the scope of meeting patients' increasingly complex needs. B.
C. pays for six counselling sessions at her clinic, Ross said, while dietician referrals are hospital-based and funded only for certain conditions such as diabetes. Demand is high, Ross said, as people without a family doctor or nurse practitioner may rely on walk-in clinics and emergency departments that are already overcrowded, and don't provide comprehensive follow-up care .
Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says the group wants people to understand how t.