TORONTO — Most Canadians want greater input and accountability when it comes to patient care, including a formalized process to voice complaints about the health-care system, according to a new report.

In its National Report Card on Health Care in Canada, the Canadian Medical Association enlisted pollster Ipsos Reid to assess Canadians' attitudes toward the health-care system.

In findings from the CMA's annual report released Monday, 93 per cent of Canadians agreed that they would like their province to adopt a patient health charter, designed to ensure accountability and responsibility for the quality of care received. Some 82 per cent of those polled agreed such a charter outlining patients' rights and responsibilities would make the system more efficient.

The survey found 87 per cent of Canadians agreed the patient charter should have a mechanism in place where citizens could complain about poor health-care service. Most polled also supported the inclusion of an independent ombudsman to voice such complaints.

Greater transparency of health-care operations within and between provinces and territories was also of importance to respondents.

Some 80 per cent of Canadians supported publishing the number of complaints to better see how jurisdictions were doing in relation to each other. And 88 per cent supported a system allowing citizens who were not receiving adequate care to seek and receive treatment in another jurisdiction.

CMA president Dr. Jeff Turnbull said Canadians are expressing a desire for a health-care system better designed to meet their needs.

"Canadians are clearly telling us -- as we've found with our dialogue as well -- that accountability is very important," Turnbull said in a phone interview from St. John's, N.L., where the association kicked off its annual meeting on Sunday.

"They want to have the care that they get measured against those national standards and they want to have that public, and they also want a means for redress when, in fact, they're not getting care that meets that national standard."

"I think that that's a very reasonable expectation that Canadians have," he added. "They want to have value for their hard-earned tax dollars and they want to know that they're getting very good care right across this country -- no matter where they are."

Turnbull said some provinces are now starting to receive data about the performance of their health-care systems, but that it's not as comprehensive as it should be, nor in a format to be able to make comparisons between jurisdictions. He said there remains "a lot of work to be done" in terms of making the system accountable.

The CMA said this year's report card saw a similar decline in Canadians' perceptions of the federal government's actions in dealing with health care.

The report found 36 per cent of respondents assigned Ottawa either an A or B grade for its performance, down from 41 per cent last year. Some 38 per cent of those polled assigned similar grades to their provincial governments, compared to 41 per cent in 2010.

The report found 83 per cent of respondents said their health services either stayed the same or worsened since the last federal-provincial health accord was signed in 2004.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq was scheduled to address delegates at the CMA's annual meeting on Monday. The theme of this year's event is "Health Care Transformation -- Voices Into Action."

"We're looking at this meeting very specifically at how health care can be changed in Canada and how we can create partnerships, and how we can work with our elected officials to make our health-care system much more efficient and effective," said Turnbull.

The report card survey was conducted July 5-8 though an online survey of 1,026 Canadian adults from the Ipsos-Reid Household Panel. Ipsos Reid also did a phone survey of 1,000 Canadians between July 6 and 7.

Sample results were weighted according to census data. Findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.