OTTAWA –

A brand new survey suggests the overwhelming majority of Canadians have considerations in regards to the state of the health-care system, significantly in Atlantic provinces the place hospitals have struggled to take care of emergency companies for months.

Leger and The Association for Canadian Studies surveyed 1,554 Canadian adults over a two-day interval in January.

Doctors, nurses and affected person advocacy teams have been frantically waving pink flags in regards to the disaster unfolding in Canadian hospitals for the reason that pandemic started, when intensive care models and emergency rooms had been flooded with sufferers.

Since then, the already burnt-out workforce has steadily declined, leaving fewer well being staff to deal with waves of flu and different respiratory sicknesses on the finish of final 12 months.

About 86 per cent of individuals surveyed throughout the nation stated they’re frightened in regards to the state of well being care, in comparison with 94 per cent of these surveyed in Atlantic Canada.

The folks surveyed had been barely extra involved in regards to the state of well being care in the event that they reported receiving care within the final 12 months.

People in Eastern Canada additionally fear in regards to the high quality of care they will get if they should go to an emergency room: 81 per cent say they’re involved, in comparison with 67 per cent of Canadians total.

The labour scarcity in that a part of the nation has repeatedly triggered short-term emergency room closures, forcing sufferers to journey farther for the care they urgently want.

In Nova Scotia, these closures primarily occurred in rural hospitals, a authorities report issued late final 12 months exhibits.

Countrywide, 90 per cent of rural survey respondents reported concern in regards to the state of well being care.

Overall, 54 per cent of Canadians characterize the standard of their provincial well being system nearly as good or superb, whereas 43 per cent say it’s poor or very poor.

Canadians’ assessments of their public health-care programs are relatively dim when in comparison with the solutions of 1,005 Americans surveyed, 74 per cent of whom graded their very own well being system nearly as good or superb.

As provincial and territorial governments attempt to work by way of surgical and diagnostic backlogs that accrued over the course of the pandemic, some have turned to personal clinics to ease the load. The transfer has created a polarized debate about non-public supply of public well being care.

Of Canadian respondents to the survey, 53 per cent stated they don’t need to see extra privatization of their provincial health-care programs.

As the federal authorities negotiates with provinces to pay a bigger share of the invoice for health-care companies, 69 per cent of Canadians who responded to the survey stated their provincial governments weren’t placing sufficient cash into the system.

The survey can’t be assigned a margin of error as a result of on-line polls usually are not thought of really random samples.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 27, 2023.