According to a recent report from Health Quality Ontario, 9 Million Prescriptions, one in seven Ontarians fills a prescription for opioids every year. More than 9 million prescriptions for opioids were filled in the province in 2015/16. Canada remains the second-largest consumer of prescription opioids in the world, after the US.
Unfortunately, many patients are receiving these highly addictive drugs, from both legitimate and illicit sources, with only questionable benefit. This is a complex problem involving many health care providers and many interwoven factors compounding the situation.
While physicians are faced with the challenges of treating patients with often complex disorders and few resources, more appropriate prescribing by all physicians is part of the solution.
Ten years ago, I gave birth in hospital to my first child – a healthy, beautiful baby girl.
I still remember looking into her eyes for the first time and I still remember what it was like to be a patient. I remember wanting to provide feedback to someone about my experiences – both the good (great breastfeeding support) and the bad (being woken before dawn for a blood pressure check). But there was never any opportunity.
Bringing quality to primary care is a daunting task.
But, for the committed family doctors, nurse practitioners and other health care practitioners who provide care to more than 13.5 million people in the province on a daily basis, the magnitude of opportunity to do better is great.
Health care quality is defined as a health system that is safe, effective, patient-centred, timely, efficient, and equitable and the Choosing Wisely Canada campaign aligns with these goals.
Delivering high-quality care is about more than just appropriately providing care to those who require it in an equitable and safe fashion. It is also about not providing treatments, procedures or tests that are deemed to be unnecessary, or potentially harmful to patients.
“When it comes to moving health care practices forward efficiently, Canada is a country of perpetual pilot projects. We seldom move proven projects into stable, funded programs, and we rarely transfer the outcomes of pilot projects across jurisdictions. This approach is not serving our health care system well.”