Federal health minister Allan Rock last week promised to do what he can to preserve the rural health-care system, in the face of reports that hospitals are closing, doctors are leaving and rural services do not match urban services.
He is appointing an executive director of rural health to advise him.
“The executive director of rural health in my department will be instrumental in bringing a focus to rural health issues and improving the way we serve rural Canadians,” Rock told the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture Feb. 26.
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He told delegates that much of a $150 million departmental fund to finance pilot projects on new technologies, including telephone consultations between rural physicians and urban specialists, will be spent on rural Canada.
“We would like to make distance irrelevant.”
But Rock conceded there are growing signs of a gap in service between rural and urban heath care.
He told reporters that appointment of a rural health adviser within the department is an attempt to stop creation of full service and access for urban Canadians and a diminished service for rural Canadians.
He said his nine months in the health portfolio have not led him to conclude there is a rural/urban two-tier system yet, but he is worried about the potential.
“We have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Rock. “When I met with the president of the rural physicians association of Canada, he made the point to me that just because of distances involved, it is often tough to get to diagnostic equipment or to find specialists available. We have to redouble our efforts to make sure we don’t end up with a two-tier system.”
In his speech to the CFA delegates, Rock said he subscribed to the government policy that all programs should be analyzed through a “rural lens” to make sure they meet rural needs.
Later, CFA president Jack Wilkinson welcomed the minister’s recognition of rural health program delivery problems.
“This is a big issue in rural Canada, a growing issue,” he said. “In many areas, health-care services are pitiful. The minister’s focus on this is a welcome sign that maybe something can be done.”
Rock said one of the pilot projects his department will fund will look at alternative ways to fund rural doctors who often complain that the pay-per-patient medicare system diminishes their income in sparsely populated areas.
