Health-care workers deserve financial incentives to encourage them to spend more time focusing on patient care, Roy Romanow said Thursday.

Canadian Press

Health-care workers deserve financial incentives to encourage them to spend more time focusing on patient care, Roy Romanow said Thursday.

The incentives would encourage doctors and nurses to work in front-line facilities such as hospitals, Romanow, head of the national commission on health care, told a meeting of physicians.

"Health-care providers (must) be paid appropriately for the comprehensive care they provide," he told the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

"It would provide more time for primary health-care organizations to build strong relationships with patients, their families and their communities."

The former Saskatchewan premier, whose final report will be tabled in three weeks, didn't say what form the incentives would take, how much they would cost or who would pay for them.

But the College of Family Physicians, which represents 15,000 family doctors across Canada, said any form of extra compensation for its members would be welcome.

College President Dominique Tessier said there's a major doctor shortage in Canada and the physicians in the system are overworked.

She also accused provinces such as Quebec of forcing doctors to work in certain regions, instead of offering incentives and giving them the freedom of choice.

Tessier added the incentives don't necessarily have to take the form of money.

"Give them good incentives - not only financial incentives but also workplace incentives," she told reporters following Romanow's speech.

"Make the working places better and you will have more doctors."

The college released a Decima poll on Thursday that suggested one-third of Canadians had difficulty, or knew someone who had difficulty, finding a family doctor in the previous 12 months.

The Oct. 11-20 poll of 2,015 Canadians also indicated that 80 per cent of those surveyed believed there was a shortage of family doctors.

Romanow received warm applause from the several hundred doctors who attended his speech when he reiterated the need for stable health-care funding.

His final report is expected to recommend a major injection of cash into the system. A Senate committee recommended last month that an extra $5 billion be pumped into the system, with the money to be raised through new taxes.

Aside from the financial incentives, Romanow mentioned three other keys to improving health care: better co-ordination of health-care services to reduce costs and duplication; prevention of illness through early detection; and better information services for patients and health-care providers.