Initiatives meant to 'strengthen and support Canada's health workforce'
The federal government is investing nearly $48 million to improve health workforce planning and advance research to better support health workers.
"Working together to support health workers is crucial to people in Canada receiving the care they need, when they need it,” Mark Holland, Canada's minister of health “Through these initiatives to strengthen and support Canada's health workforce, our government is working to improve access to timely and equitable care and better health outcomes for people in Canada."
The federal funding will dedicate $22.5 million to Health Workforce Canada to improve the accessibility of health workforce data and share practical solutions and innovative practices to address key gaps and implementation challenges in health workforce planning.
In addition, the funding will include:
- $13 million to the Medical Council of Canada to operate and expand the National Registry of Physicians to have a centralized location of streamlined physician data to improve informed decision making in the healthcare system;
- More than $330,000 to the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada to improve physician licensing standards and processes in Canada; and
- $11.6 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and partners to teams that are investigating ways to strengthen and support Canada's health workforce.
These initiatives will also improve how information about Canada's health workforce is collected, used, and shared to support health employers and governments in the planning of health workforce across the country, according to the federal government.
In turn, this will inform retention and recruitment practices, support the mobility of physicians across Canada to help communities facing shortages, and investigate solutions to strengthen the health workforce and positively impact policy and practice.
"Enhanced information is needed to support analysis of the issues everyone is facing so that planning, building and support of a strong, healthy workforce can continue across the country,” said Deb Gordon, interim CEO, Health Workforce Canada. “Health Workforce Canada is working hard with our partners to strengthen health workforce data, to improve access to timely data, and to share effective health workforce innovations and solutions."
Previously, two provincial governments were criticized for the way they are spending funding for healthcare workers.
Funding for healthcare workers in Quebec
Ottawa is also investing nearly $750,000 for Clinique Mauve in Quebec.
Clinique Mauve was created in 2020 in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on migrant and racialized LGBTQIA+ communities. It offers intersectoral, community-based and integrated care, particularly for Spanish- and Arabic-speaking newcomers who face language barriers and have complex physical and mental health care needs.
The clinic also provides training for healthcare professionals, community workers and students. The clinic's model of care includes pair navigation, a type of peer intervention.
This funding will support Clinique Mauve's Implementation Science team, which proposes a cross-sectoral, integrated model of care to address the urgent health needs of LGBTQIA+ migrant and racialized people living in Montréal,” said Edward Ou Jin Lee, co-director of Clinique Mauve, and his colleagues.
“Our research team will further explore the opportunities and challenges related not only to the deployment of innovative care models, but also to the promotion of equitable health, in particular to support and retain LGBTQIA+ migrant and racialized healthcare professionals. This funding will enable us to foster synergies between research, practice and training in the field from an interdisciplinary and interprofessional perspective,”
About 6.5 million Canadians – about 22% of the adult population – do not currently have a family doctor, the federal government noted, citing a February 2024 report from the OurCare Initiative.
The State of the Health Workforce in Canada, 2022 also confirmed a national shortage of 60,000 registered nurses. Canada anticipates a shortage of 78,000 doctors by 2031 and 117,600 nurses by 2030.
Ontario is facing massive shortages in nurse and personal worker (PSW) counts, and it could be worse in the coming years, according to a previous report from The Canadian Press.
