The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) released a new report card on Thursday, November 10th, indicating tentative progress in some areas across 23 indicators of importance to family medicine.
This document, The Role of the Federal Government in Health Care: Report Card 2016, updates the grades from the CFPC’s previous 2013 report card. Overall, the report revealed improvement in support for Indigenous health programs, the national home care program, and a federal strategy on child and youth health, as well as action on a national immunization strategy.
The report card uses a colour-coded grade scheme, with green indicating strong leadership by government, yellow indicating some government involvement or an intent to act, and red pointing to no government action and a need for immediate attention.
The majority of the grades this year are yellow, which indicates some positive intentions from the government but points to a need for further action or increased commitment in certain areas. Realizing the government has just completed its first year of a 4-year mandate, the CFPC will continue to monitor its progress.
“We applaud the green grades showing leadership, and the CFPC commends the federal government on these improvements, but more remains to be done,” said Dr Francine Lemire, the CFPC’s Executive Director and CEO. “The report card has identified several areas for improvement including the need to improve timely access to care, and support for primary care reform. These areas of concern continue to result in reduced quality of services for patients.”