COVID-19: A catalyst for change in the health care system
- kgolden13
- Dec 2, 2020
- 3 min read
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a substantial impact on the healthcare system. Healthcare institutions have had to rapidly mobilize, organize and deploy resources to provide care for Canadians while also caring for non-COVID-19 patients. To support the COVID-19 response, many programs have had to reduce or delay services leaving many individuals with cancelled referrals, tests, and procedures. While the pandemic has resulted in several disruptions and placed tremendous demand on resources, will it also be a catalyst for change in the health care system?
This blog post will look at some of the advancements we have made in physician licensure and virtual health care since the global pandemic was announced.
Physician Licensure and Mobility
Physicians are currently required to submit a separate application to each province or territory’s regulatory authority that licences physicians. This process creates challenges for residents and physicians interested in working outside their home province (Resident Doctors of Canada. n.d.). Many national health care organizations have recognized that the current process creates a number of challenges and has been advocating for national licensure. This would allow physicians to provide care in multiple jurisdictions, especially in rural and remote communities whose primary access to a family physician is via a locum physician (Yu & Schipper, 2020).
Given COVID-19’s rate of spread and the majority of confirmed cases have occurred in four provinces (see Figure 1), the physician workforce has and will continue to face tremendous strain (Tang & Zhou, 2020). The pandemic has health systems and organizations working on creative ways to make the most available resources. This has highlighted the need to increase physician mobility to improve care access and ensure that the right number of health professionals with the correct skillset is working in the right location. To facilitate this, the medical regulators have temporarily agreed to issue fast-track emergency licences to physicians enabling them to provide care across Canada (Tang & Zhou, 2020). While it is not a permeant change, perhaps this is a step in the right direction to establishing national licensure to increase care to rural and remote communities.
Virtual Care
Virtual care – connecting with health care providers by e-mail, phone, or video call has not been a routine practice in Canada, despite its potential to offer timely access to care to all Canadians. Much of the messaging with COVID-19 has been around “flattening the curve” or “staying the blazes home,” asking individuals to maintain social distancing and limiting their interactions to those outside their bubble. Therefore, virtual care has become a necessity during the pandemic. Many health care providers have implemented and adopted virtual health care to provide urgent and ongoing assessments, as well as education and counselling. A recent survey suggests that 47 percent of Canadians have used virtual care during the pandemic, and of those, 91 percent we satisfied with the experience (Zafar, 2020).
While virtual care will never completely replace in-person consultations and exams, COVID aside, there are many benefits:
Convenience – patients no longer need to travel to and from a hospital and clinic to meet with their care provider(s). For example, if a patient required surgery in another province or city, all follow-up appointments could be made virtually. This would reduce travel and expenses while still ensure the patient receives the required care.
Care for rural and remote areas – virtual care could provide communities and those living in rural and remote areas access to primary care providers they may not otherwise have access to
Teaching and education – many remote and rural areas don’t have the same access to all health services you would find in an urban setting. For example, diabetic education clinics are an excellent resource for those with a new onset of diabetes. The ability to set up virtual education sessions with patients in any area could go a long way to ensure we are setting patients up for success.
The pandemic response inadvertently sped up the implementation of virtual care in Canada, and this will hopefully lay the groundwork for widespread uptake in the future (Tang & Zhou, 2020).
Figure 2 - CBC News
Conclusion
COVID-19 has been a challenge for health care providers, and while we are all busy trying to keep our head above the water, it is vital to take a moment and acknowledge some of the positives. Perhaps some of these changes can have a lasting impact on health care delivery post-pandemic.
References
Resident Doctors of Canada. (n.d.). National Licensure. https://residentdoctors.ca/areas-of-focus/national-licensure/
Tang, D., Zhou, L. L., (2020, September). COVID-19: An accidental catalyst for change in the Canadian health care system. British Columbia Medical Journal. 62(7): 242-243, 246. https://bcmj.org/premise-covid-19/covid-19-accidental-catalyst-change-canadian-health-care-system
Yu, Y., & Schipper, S. (2020). Physician mobility in Canada. Canadian Family Physician, 66(5). https://www.cfp.ca/content/66/5/377?rss=1
Zafar, A. (2020, June 8). Many Canadians used virtual medical care during COVID-19, a poll suggests. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/virtual-care-cma-survey-1.5603713
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