How Do Canadians Rate the Health Care System? Our 3rd Webinar

On February 14th, we held our third webinar, What Can We Learn From Top Performing Countries? It expanded on our November 2011 bulletin, How Do Canadians Rate the Health Care System? based on the 2010 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey. In the bulletin, we found that citizens of certain European countries feel they have the edge in particular areas of health care. 

In our webinar, we discussed those areas and what Canada and other countries can learn. We invited three guest panelists - from the United Kingdom, Nicholas Mays, Professor of Health Policy in the Department of Health Services Research & Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London; from the Netherlands, Dr. Jako Burgers at the University Medical Centre, St. Radboud Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, Nijmegen; from Switzerland, Dr. Monika Diebold, Head of Obsan, the Swiss Health Observatory, at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Neuchâtel. 

If you missed the webinar, you can download or playback by clicking  HERE. We apologise that it commences just after the start of panelist Nicholas May's presentation.You can download the complete PowerPoint presentations HERE. Finally, here are the questions webinar attendees asked our panelists...

• Is there additional insurance over the basic national insurance? Is this additional insurance private or governmental?
• How does the health of the population, i.e., more chronic disease, higher obesity rates, etc., translate to higher per capita costs in a country?
• One of the major barriers to moving toward electronic health records is cost. How did the Netherlands and the UK implement computerized systems without incurring unrealistic expenses?
• All three systems use primary medical care as a surrogate for primary care. How are other primary care providers integrated within your primary care solution? How are they reimbursed, fees negotiated and what incentives are there to optimize team-based care?
• In the Netherlands, the average consultation length with a doctor is 10 minutes. Is that time enough?
• How about medical education for GPs? Does your country make use of EMR systems or regional prescribing databases to provide feedback to GPs about their prescribing practices and make recommendations about optimal cost-effective prescribing?
• What are the implications for the issues discussed (access to care, timeliness etc.) in the engagement of patients with the physicians? In the case of Switzerland, have there been any changes or attempts at the patient-physician level in order to address the cultural differences among the four groups?  
• When Dutch residents seek care from one of the 100+ after-hours care centres, are their patient records available electronically to the MDs?
• Are governance models significant in promoting primary care service delivery, for example Regional Health Authorities?
• What is the impact of "culture" on the demand for specialist services in your country? That is, is there any difference in patient expectation or GP attitude between countries that impacts behaviours/expectations respecting access to specialist care?
• What is the NHS' overall approach to managing recently announced cuts to its budget? How do you perceive this will impact service provision?
• A big issue here in Canada is the high number of patients, often elderly patients, occupying acute care beds who should be cared for elsewhere. This contributes to lengthy wait times for elective care and for emergency care. Is this a problem in your country?
• In the Netherlands we are working on the implementation of a National Exchange point electronic health records. Do the panel lists think this might improve coordination? Are there any experiences?
• What about the impact of survey methodology? I suppose you all have the common problem of growing rates of non-responders. Are you worried about that? How do you deal with this limitation?
•  How do England and the Netherlands explain the low marks for patient centered care given the overall comfort with primary care in general?

You may have your own questions or comments about either the bulletin or what you heard in our webinar. Please feel free to post them in the comments section below.