Children in Ontario and across the country often wait longer than many adults for a range of vital services and procedures.
Last week, families in Ottawa were once again cautioned about lengthy waits for emergency care at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
This news is distressing but shouldn’t come as a surprise. Children’s hospitals all across Canada have been under pressure as the result of growing demands and under-resourcing for years. In recent months, these pressures have reached record proportions. With hospitals operating at or above capacity, often the only option to create space for children with serious health conditions is to cancel and reschedule elective (though essential, and time-sensitive) surgical procedures. Subsequent waits for surgical interventions, but also mental health services, diagnostics and child development assessments mean children in this province and across the country are often waiting longer than many adults.
Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Ottawa Citizen Headline News will soon be in your inbox.
It wasn’t always this way. Canada once ranked among the top 10 OECD countries with respect to children’s health outcomes, but now, according to the 2020 UNICEF report card, Canada punches far below its weight, ranking 30th of 38 wealthy countries.
In Canada today, more than 30 per cent of children and youth suffer from chronic diseases, and one in five children experiences chronic pain. We have one of the highest rates of adolescent suicide in the developed world, while more than 30,000 children in Ontario alone sit on a wait list for mental health services.
It is clear Canada needs a plan for children. One that prioritizes both their current and future health and health-care needs. While there are no quick fixes, there are indeed solutions. In 2020, Children’s Healthcare Canada partnered with the Pediatric Chairs of Canada, UNICEF Canada and CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health to launch a pan-Canadian initiative called Inspiring Healthy Futures. After broad consultations, we identified five interlinked priorities to create conditions for children to thrive. I outlined these points in recent testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, where we called for the development of a pan-Canadian child and youth health strategy. Our vision is for a comprehensive, bold action plan that would forge a productive path for Canada’s children and youth.
Very specifically, a comprehensive plan must include the following:
• Children and youth require timely access to appropriate mental health services, close to home. A commitment to earmarking 25 per cent of the proposed Canada Mental Health Transfer for children under 18 would be a crucial first step towards addressing this critical issue.
• A robust maternal, child and youth health research agenda and data strategy is critical. What gets measured matters, and the development of children’s health-care policies, services and health promotion campaigns must be evidence-informed.
• We need to develop a human resources strategy that urgently addresses current labour gaps of highly specialized health-care providers who care for children. This plan must foster the resilience of the current providers and plan for the sustainability of a future workforce.
• A strategy to address unprecedented delays in access to time-sensitive child development, surgical and diagnostic services.
• Improving access to specialized services for rural, remote and Indigenous populations remains critical to addressing health disparities and promoting health equity in children’s health care in Canada.
• And finally, access to safe and effective medications for children and youth is paramount to improving quality and safety health care for kids.
We stand at a critical juncture. As we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate lessons learned, we must turn our eyes towards building a better future for all people, and that future starts with our kids.
Time is ticking for children’s health-care systems. We need to address both the crisis facing children and youth and the health systems that serve them, but also plan for the years ahead. We have the expertise, knowledge and tools to restore our global standing on children’s health, and gift future generations with a stronger, integrated and more resilient health-care system.
Now, all we need is bold, visionary leadership and a firm commitment from governments to make this possible. Our children — the future of Canada — deserve nothing less.
Ottawa resident Emily Gruenwoldt is the CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada.