The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) believes that a productive population is the backbone of a prosperous nation. CNA also knows that a healthy population means a healthy workforce.

CNA agrees with the Health Council of Canada that our future success as a nation of healthy and productive citizens depends on all governments working together in the interest of Canadians.

CNA believes that Canada’s health-care systems need an accountability framework, so that Canadians can be sure of getting the best value from every dollar in health-care spending. This transformation needs involvement at the federal level through targeted policies and fiscal intervention.

By way of this submission, CNA is calling on the federal government to demonstrate leadership in advancing the health transformation and quality agendas. CNA’s recommendations support the need for an accountability framework to address key health systems challenges and optimize health outcomes for Canadians. They are categorized according to the following three priorities:

1. ensuring capacity of the health systems by stabilizing and securing Canada’s health human resources
2. optimizing efficiency and access across Canada’s health systems by strengthening community-based services
3. strengthening public accountability across health-care systems by establishing quality indicators

CNA recommendations

As an essential element of Canada’s Health Accountability Plan, CNA calls on the federal government to do three things:

1. Lead the creation of a national unique identifier (NUI) for all Canadian health professionals.
2. Coordinate strategic priorities across national agencies to advance community-based health services such as primary care, ambulatory care and home care through research, innovation and knowledge translation.
3. Coordinate the creation of a comprehensive set of pan-Canadian health system indicators that demonstrate quality improvement across the continuum of care.