Condition Critical: Canada's Health-Care System

Margaret Buttignol was a graduate student in sociology at the University of Toronto.

According to author Nicholas Regush, Canada’s system of health care is in a critical condition. What has happened to the dream of good universal health care for Canadians? To answer
this question, the author interviewed hundreds of people involved in the health field all over Canada.

Regush believes that politicians and hospital administrators publicly downplay the growing problems in Canadian health care. And these problems cannot simply be solved by pouring more money into hospital beds and emergency departments. Fundamental problems exist such as inflation, escalating costs of labour contracts, and the increased use of high-priced medical technology. Canada also has a rapidly aging population, which means that in the near future there will be even greater numbers of persons with chronic diseases such as cancer and heart ailments which lead to prolonged and costly care.

Canadians may be starting to appreciate the fact that their health care is too important to be left solely in the hands of health professionals and politicians. Regush advocates the formation of an independent national health council to establish goals for the future of Canadian health care, to develop methods to inform Canadians about health care issues, and to incorporate public input into overall health care planning.

This book is well written and appears to be thoroughly researched. It would be ideal for use in senior level high school or university courses. Editorially, the only shortcoming is that an index might have been included.

Nicholas Regush has been a journalist specializing in medical and health care issues at the Montreal Gazette since 1981. He draws on more than 15 years’ experience as a medical observer.