March 26, 2024 | Montague (Prince Edward Island) | Health Canada

All seniors in Canada deserve to age in dignity, safety and comfort, regardless of where they live. That’s why the Government of Canada is investing nearly $200 billion over 10 years, including $5.4 billion in tailored bilateral agreements with provinces and territories on aging with dignity.

This was announced today by the Honorable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Member of Parliament for Cardigan, on behalf of the Honorable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, and the Honorable Mark McLane, Minister of Health and Wellness of Prince Edward Island, of a bilateral agreement to invest more than $29 million over the next five years to help Prince Edward Islanders age with dignity and closer to home. Thanks to this investment, they will have better access to home care, community care and long-term care (LTC). This funding is in addition to the $94 million bilateral agreement announced in December 2023 with the province as part of the government’s “Working together to improve health care in Canada” plan.

Thanks to the agreement Aging gracefullyFederal funding will support Prince Edward Island’s five-year action plan to improve health care for seniors. This plan aims to:

• Expand access to home care services, including palliative care, by:
  • Establish a hospital-to-home service that brings together licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and paramedics to provide short-term critical care services at home. This service is expected to meet the needs of more than 1,450 older people through interventions such as advanced wound care;
  • Increasing the number of Palliative Home Care Coordinators working within the Prince Edward Island Home Care Program to increase access to palliative care services in the community, reduce hospitalizations, and improve end-of-life care for clients and their families.
• Addressing quality and safety gaps in the long-term care sector by:
  • Recruit additional health care providers such as occupational therapists, physical therapists and recreational therapists to provide services in private long-term care facilities to improve residents’ well-being and quality of life;
  • Expand implementation of InterRAI to 10 private long-term care facilities. InterRAI is a digital platform for assessing individual health needs and its implementation in more facilities will influence care planning and improve quality across the long-term care sector.
  • Increasing long-term care bed capacity and enabling the provision of long-term care services to residents in more locations, including rural communities, while facilitating comparable infection prevention and control;
  • Introducing mobile radiology units in long-term care settings to provide rapid access to care and reduce the demand for patient transfers between care facilities.

Progress on these large-scale initiatives and commitments will be measured against the targets that Prince Edward Island publicly reports on each year.

Through this new agreement and the Working Together agreement signed in December 2023, Prince Edward Island is also committed to improving the way health information is collected, exchanged, used and communicated to people living in Canada for recognition of foreign qualifications for internationally trained health professionals, to facilitate the mobility of key health professionals in Canada and to provide shared responsibility for enforcement Canadian Health Act to protect Canadians’ access to health care based on their needs, not their ability to pay.

Recognizing the significant gaps in Indigenous health outcomes, the Government of Canada and Prince Edward Island are also committed to working meaningfully with their Indigenous partners to improve access to quality health services adapted to Indigenous culture. Prince Edward Island’s action plan builds on the continued commitment of its Indigenous partners and recent trilateral discussions involving the federal government. All levels of government will approach health decisions within their jurisdictions from a perspective of respect and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Prince Edward Island and the federal government will continue to work together to improve access to health services and deliver outcomes for the province’s seniors, while meeting the needs of the Indigenous population.

Quotes

“Today’s announcement is the result of a collaborative effort between the province and federal government to ensure equitable access to safe, quality health care for seniors on the island. This agreement focuses on a profound transformation of the healthcare system and is also rooted in the principles of dignity for older people.

It will eliminate health care disparities and significantly improve accessibility and quality of life for seniors. Seniors have dedicated their entire lives to building a better Canada – it is our duty in return to ensure they can truly age with dignity. »

The Honorable Mark Holland
Minister of Health

“Health care is at the heart of the concerns of Islanders, particularly our seniors. This new agreement will make a real difference in our province by helping to ensure Island seniors have access to quality care when and where they need it. »

The Honorable Lawrence MacAulay
Minister for Agriculture and Food and Member of Parliament for Cardigan

“This collaborative agreement between the provincial and federal governments underscores our commitment to improving health care for seniors on Prince Edward Island. It is important to help the island’s seniors age gracefully through home care, community care, long-term care and other services. This is an important step towards improving the services and support they need most. »

The Honorable Mark McLane
Prince Edward Island Minister of Health and Wellness

Fast facts

• As part of the plan Working together to improve healthcare in CanadaThe government is working with provinces and territories to implement two bilateral agreements. One aims to help Canadians age with dignity and closer to home by having access to home or community care or care in a secure long-term care facility.
• The agreement Aging gracefullywhereby the agreement is concluded Collaborateprovides $2.4 billion over four years to improve access to home and community care (Budget 2017) and $3 billion over five years for long-term care (Budget 2021) to improve standards of care to enforce and support workforce stability in long-term care facilities. The agreement and the five-year action plan Aging gracefully of Prince Edward Island can be viewed here.
• The 2023 budget outlined the Government of Canada’s plan to invest nearly $200 billion over 10 years, including $46.2 billion in new funding for provinces and territories, to improve health care for Canada’s population . This funding will provide $25 billion under new bilateral agreements tailored to the specific needs of their populations and geographies under four shared health priorities:
  • Expand access to family health services, including in rural and remote areas;
  • Support healthcare professionals and reduce backlogs;
  • strengthening support for mental health and addiction management;
  • Modernize healthcare systems using healthcare data and digital tools.
• The agreement Collaborate Prince Edward Island’s three-year plan and action plan, announced in December 2023, are related to the shared health priorities identified above and can be viewed here.
• The plan Collaborate also provides a guaranteed 5% increase in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) over the next 5 years, or $17.5 billion, and a one-time $2 billion increase in the CHT to cover urgently needed emergency rooms and children’s hospitals , which will be paid out in June 2023. Taken together, these investments provide provinces and territories the flexibility to meet the unique needs of their populations and geographies and accelerate improvements to health systems.
• In the 2017 budget, the federal government committed $11 billion over 10 years to provinces and territories to improve Canadians’ access to home and community care, mental health and addictions services. Bilateral agreements have been signed with provinces and territories to access the first six years of this funding. Funding for the last 4 years for mental health and addictions is included in bilateral agreements Collaborate.