Romanow Commission

In April 2001, the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada was established. Commissioner Roy Romanow was given the mandate to "inquire into and undertake dialogue with Canadians on the future of Canada's public health care system" and "to develop recommendations that will help ensure the long-term sustainability of a high quality, universally accessible, publicly administered health care system, for all Canadians".

CAEP saw within this initiative an opportunity to share in this public dialogue, reflect the current state of emergency medicine, and to identify for the future the necessary components to achieve excellence in patient care. We also recognized our obligation to our patients in providing a truthful and factual basis for any proposed initiatives at health care reform that may emanate from this Commission.

The initial expectation of personal meetings with the Commissioner was not realized, for in June 2001 National Provider Organizations were requested to send formal written submissions to the Commission. With the fast approaching deadline (originally October 31), an intervening Canadian summer, and the attendant need for any written submission to be edited, formatted, approved by the CAEP Board and printed, the window of opportunity seemed to be closing rapidly.

The recently announced CAEP Advocacy Committee was charged with the responsibility of developing a document that would serve to educate and hopefully, enlighten the Commissioner. A teleconference was quickly called in June, basic themes and potential authors were identified and, within days, assignments were handed out.

The authors were identified through their interest and expertise in the basic themes. The instructions were simple: essays were to be factual yet passionate, brief yet readable and, at the end of the day, recommendations must be achievable.

Essays were collated in August, edited in September, approved by the CAEP Board in October and forwarded to the Commission in November (the deadline now extended to December 31).

On April 30, 2002, Dr. Tony Taylor represented CAEP at the Open Public Hearing in Calgary, held by the Health Care Commission. Please read his insightful presentation (88kb), which resulted in Commissioner Romanow asking for more information about national standards and the role of federal and provincial governments in promoting national standards.

We encourage you to read the entire CAEP submission and to advocacy@caep.ca what you think with respect to the identified themes. Please contribute to this public dialogue and independently contact the Romanow Commission with your own ideas.

Thank you,

Alan Drummond, MD CCFP(EM) Chair-CAEP Advocacy Committee publicaffairs@caep.ca