Issue link: http://clhia.uberflip.com/i/206673
term care facilities in Canada, to meet this future demand Canada will need almost 6,000 addition longterm care facilities to be built over the next 35 years. This works out to almost 170 new facilities per year over this period. 25 Given the magnitude of the issue, as well as the current fiscal challenges facing governments, governments will not be able to provide all the funding for new facilities. It is critical, therefore, that both the private and public sectors play a role in meeting this need. Private sector participation in the provision of long-term care would promote competition, which could lead to improved innovation of services, cost efficiencies and focusing on the patient in the long-term care market. In order to ensure a vibrant private sector involvement in this market, it is important that no undue barriers to entry be created and that governments resist the temptation to apply price or cost controls on private facilities. That being said, there is a critical role for regulation and supervision of the quality of care delivered at all stages of the long-term care continuum in both public and private facilities. Patient safety must not be sacrificed. We fully support appropriate regulation of the long-term care market and, in particular, that adequate resources be put into supervision of long-term care providers. Health Care Practitioner Shortage There is a shortage of health care practitioners - physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, chiropractors, etc. - that work in the area of geriatrics. For example, there are currently about 200 geriatric medicine specialists practicing in Canada. 26 In contrast, Sweden with a population less than one-third the size of Canada's has 500 geriatricians. 27 The shortage is set to intensify over the coming years. Indeed, the number of internal medicine residents entering geriatric medicine programs has decreased dramatically over the last 10 years. The Canadian Geriatric Society reports that in 2007 there were only five trainees in English-speaking programs for the entire country. Similarly, care of the elderly family medicine training programs have many vacancies. 28 In contrast to the U.S., Canadian specialists in geriatric medicine do not provide primary care. They act as a short-term resource to primary care physicians, and health care teams in the community, in hospitals and in long-term care facilities. To fully address Canada's serious shortage of geriatrics health professionals, action is required to attract more practitioners, including younger practitioners, to enter the field of geriatric medicine. This plan 25 According to the Canadian Healthcare Association (New Directions for Facility-Based Long-term Care), in 2007 there were 2,577 long-term care facilities in Canada and 217,969 beds. Based on this we use average beds per facility to calculate the number of facilities required to meet expected future demand. 26 Canadian Medical Association. Specialty Profile: Geriatric Medicine. 27 UofT Magazine. Care for the Aged. Summer 2009. Dr. Barry Goldlist, Director of geriatric medicine, University of Toronto. 28 Special Senate Committee on Aging Final Report. Canada's Aging Population: Seizing the Opportunity. April 2009. 12