All in for transforming Canadian healthcare

Healthcare remains a top priority for the Canadian government, and we see public and industry entities making significant investments to improve the healthcare system in every way, from initial research to services delivered to patients¹.

Canada’s healthcare system is lagging compared to similar developed countries, especially in areas like equity, care outcomes, access, and administrative efficiency, while care process is performing better overall².

With this in mind, we seek to understand Canadians’ perception of the most critical and important aspects of healthcare.

Canadians are generally satisfied with the public healthcare system and access to various health services. However, our survey found that one in four (26%) Canadians still find it difficult to navigate the healthcare system, whether it’s to identify an adequate entry point into the system, find the right medical facility/treatment or where to go for a specific concern, find available services in the community, etc.

Most Canadians would not pay for healthcare services typically provided by the government, unless absolutely necessary – they feel those services should be free as they already pay for them through taxes and insurance.

However, more than half of respondents use treatments or services that are not covered by the Canadian public health system (e.g. physiotherapy, nutritionist, naturopath, private primary care services, etc.) and usage increase with citizens income and the severity of their health condition.

Canadians also see value in engaging with private health industry players to improve healthcare as more than half of our respondents are comfortable with the private sector playing a bigger role, if it results in an improvement of services without having to pay out of pocket for it.

The pandemic caused a major shift in citizens’ trust in external entities to manage their health. Trust in healthcare providers (+13%) and local retail companies (+5%) has increased since the onset of the pandemic, as opposed to government entities (-9%) and insurance companies (-9%).

Given that trust in providers is the highest and that caregivers are suffering burnout in the wake of the pandemic, other ecosystem players like local pharmacies might have an opportunity to play a more significant role and, at the same time, contribute to reduce the pressure on burnt out providers.

Our survey found that 8 out of 10 Canadians would like to see three new services remain after the pandemic: (1) online booking and scheduling, (2) health services in the pharmacy, and (3) telehealth services. Canada’s healthcare system had to quickly adapt, and it seems like citizens enjoyed some of this innovation. Potential new market entrants should be readying themselves as areas of improvement, and thus opportunities, are becoming clearer.

The pandemic also highlighted important gaps in the current model of Canadian healthcare, including reluctance from both providers and patients to transition to virtual care, a shortage of digital tools, and a reliance on dated processes and systems that aren’t efficient or easy to use.

By following four key guiding principles, public health entities and other healthcare stakeholders can, individually and collaboratively, create the future healthcare system that Canadians need.

While the Canadian healthcare landscape saw drastic change during the pandemic, there are ample opportunities for further improvements. Healthcare providers, commercial players and citizens would benefit by collaborating to address the current system burdens and should consider technology as an ally and key success factor to overcome long overdue priority challenges. Next steps should include:

Accenture conducted a survey with a representative sample of 1,863 Canadians on their perception and experience with Canada’s healthcare system. Confidential and anonymous answers were collected by Dynata in May 2021. In addition to their responses, Accenture also conducted expert interviews with 10 senior executives of Canadian public and private healthcare organizations, through our partner Atheneum from June to July 2021. Results for the Canadian sample are statistically significant with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of +/- 2.3 percent.