Healthcare reports paint difficult future for medical system
Posted March 14, 2017 7:11 am.
Last Updated March 14, 2017 7:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As Canada’s population continues to age, two healthcare reports suggest there are big challenges ahead for the nation’s medical system.
The Conference Board of Canada is warning of a seniors’ nursing shortage over the next 30 years as “growth in demand for nursing will far outstrip general labour force growth.”
As Baby Boomers get older and there’s more need for long-term and community care, the board predicts the demand for nursing will increase from 64,000 full-year jobs now to 142,000 full-year jobs by 2035. That is a projected annual growth rate of 3.4 per cent for the sector, significantly higher than the Conference Board’s overall projection of one per cent per year growth in employment.
Adding to the problem, the report points out nursing grads often don’t see elder care as an appealing option and a recent survey in BC finds 60 per cent of long-term care employers are already seeing a shortage in staff, with 75 per cent seeing labour supply problems over the next three to five years.
“Planning for the labour requirements of providing future continuing care supports needs to be broad and include the multiple professions critical to meeting the needs of an aging population,” the report concludes.
Meanwhile, the Fraser Institute has released a report tracking provincial health spending, finding it has increased by more than double (116 per cent) since 2001.
“Following more than a decade of marked healthcare spending increases, Canadians may wonder why historically long wait times and a lack of access to doctors and life-saving equipment remain staples of Canadian healthcare,” explains Bacchus Barua, senior economist for health-care studies at the right-leaning policy group.
Even though increases in provincial health spending have slowed recently, the report projects healthcare will consume an even larger portion of program spending over the next 15 years, increasing from 42 per cent in BC last year to just under half (47.2 per cent) by the year 2031.
“As healthcare spending continues to grow, and consume a larger share of provincial program spending and the economy, there’s either less money available for other important priorities or governments may have to raise taxes and/or run deficits to cover the increasing costs,” Barua adds.
