5 million adults are without primary care in Canada: CIHI report
TORONTO - Eight-three per cent of adults in this country have a regular primary-care provider, but that still leaves 5.4 million adults without one, a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says.Seniors 65 years and older are more likely to have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner than younger adults between 18 and 34, and access to primary care is highest in Ontario and lowest in Nunavut, the CIHI report released Thursday says.The report measures the baseline of health priorities agreed upon by the federal government and the provinces and territories, including improving access to primary care, reducing wait times for mental-health and substance-use counselling, recruiting more health-care workers, decreasing surgical wait times and increasing the use of electronic health information.Data from Quebec was not available for this report but will be available in future, according to CIHI.The institute will also collect data to measure progress on two more health priorities in the…
25 Oct 04:00 · iNFOnews.ca