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Health plan

OTTAWA has just put its foot down on health-care funding. Like it or not, it will be up to the provinces now to make the most of it.

OTTAWA has just put its foot down on health-care funding. Like it or not, it will be up to the provinces now to make the most of it.

This week, the federal government announced it would be fixing transfer payments to the provinces at six per cent for five years before tying funding to inflation and economic growth. It then said it would be granting provinces more say in how they spend that money.

While the formula is unpopular with some, it does at least add certainty. Now that provinces know how much they're getting, their challenge will be to use their new autonomy to stretch it as far as possible. The key will be collaboration.

Across the country, providers have been experimenting with service delivery models aimed at accommodating growing demand. In Vancouver, our health authority has managed to slash certain wait lists by tying funding to the number of surgeries performed at a given hospital and stacking procedures in specialized centres. In Calgary, administrators have cut the wait for treatment of joint injuries through the use of online questionnaires. Other authorities have floated ideas relating to preventative medicine, improved ER triage and the expansion of long-term care facilities to free up hospital beds. By sharing the results of these trials, by discussing their successes and failures, provinces can establish best practices, and in the long run get more for less.

There's no question our system will be strained by our aging population, but if we're smart, we can stop it from buckling.