POLL: Canadians Want Health Care Accountability

• 86% support Debbie’s Law – Requiring health regions to notify patients if they can’t provide life-saving treatment in time (named after a Manitoba patient that died)
• 64% believe government hospitals should disclose waitlist deaths just like governments require restaurants to disclose even minor mistakes

CALGARY, AB: New polling data from SecondStreet.org shows Canadians want more accountability in the health care sector. The findings include a staggering 86% support for Debbie’s Law, a proposed policy that would require health regions to inform patients if they cannot provide life-saving treatment within the recommended time frame.

Debbie’s Law was inspired by the tragic case of Debbie Fewster, a Manitoba mother and grandmother who was told she needed life-saving heart surgery within three weeks but was forced to wait over two months due scheduling delays at the hospital – staff were away on vacation. She later passed away before receiving surgery. Debbie’s family has noted that if they knew at the beginning that their mother would not receive timely treatment, they would have scraped together the funds to send their mother for surgery abroad. 

“Canadians overwhelmingly want health regions to tell patients if they can’t provide life-saving treatment within the recommended time frame,” said Colin Craig, President of SecondStreet.org. “We’ve seen cases where doctors were honest and told patients there was a risk if they waited in Canada for surgery. The patients then went abroad and their lives were saved. This type of honesty and transparency needs to be a requirement.”

Key findings from the poll include:

• 86% believe that the health care system should be required to inform patients it cannot provide life-saving care within the recommended time frame.
• 82% support a policy requiring health regions to track and report annual wait times and patient outcomes, including whether patients died while waiting for procedures.
• 64% agree hospitals should be held to the same transparency standards as private businesses, requiring them to publicly disclose when preventable deaths occur.

“These numbers send a clear message: Canadians expect their health care system to be upfront about wait times and patient outcomes,” added SecondStreet.org’s Legislative and Policy Director, Harrison Fleming. “It’s hard to think of any issue in recent memory that has more support from Canadians than health care transparency. It’s time for policy makers to introduce Debbie’s Law.”

The poll was conducted by Leger between March 14-17th and surveyed 1,568 Canadians online. 

To see the results – click here