THE NEED FOR A COMPREHENSIVE CHRONIC DISEASE STRATEGY (2007)
As the province looks to control the ever-escalating cost of providing quality healthcare to all British Columbians, a comprehensive Chronic Disease Management Strategy offers huge benefit for governments’ ability to control costs, as well as provide improved quality of life for the people of British Columbia.
Chronic diseases are those that can only be controlled and not, at the present, cured. Chronic diseases are those that occur across the whole spectrum of illness. They include, but are not limited to, diabetes, depression, mental health issues, asthma, arthritis, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, dementia and a range of disabling neurological conditions; chronic diseases tend to be complex conditions and are often long-lasting and persistent. Unmanaged they can produce a range of complications resulting in increased utilization of the healthcare system.
The care of people with chronic conditions also consumes a large proportion of health and social care resources. People with chronic conditions are significantly more likely to see their GP, to be admitted as inpatients, and to use more inpatient days than those without such conditions.
The World Health Organization has identified that such conditions will be the leading cause of disability by 2020 and that, if not successfully managed, will become the most expensive problem for healthcare systems.
Good chronic disease management offers a real opportunity to address this challenge through providing improvements in patient care and service quality, while also significantly reducing healthcare costs.
Chronic diseases are becoming increasingly common in BC, more common in marginalized populations and more common in our ageing population. As obesity and lack of activity increases chronic diseases such as diabetes are becoming much more common. Many older people are living with more than one chronic condition and face particular challenges, both medical and social. While more common in older people, these diseases apply to people of all ages with long-term conditions.
Indeed, in BC, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was the leading reason for hospital stays for patients admitted via ER visits, the most expensive was to treat a patient. Another example of the impact chronic disease has on the sustainability of our healthcare system is diabetes.
Diabetes is the number 1 killer in Canada today! Approximately 211,304 British Columbians live with diabetes today, and studies project an additional 178,000 will be diagnosed with the disease by 2016 – that is an 84.3% jump!
The challenge with many chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, is that they often do not stop with the initial diseases. In the case of diabetes, without access to appropriate and timely treatment required to manage the disease many diabetics risk developing serious and costly complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and even amputation. These are debilitating and often fatal to peoples with diabetes and the overall costs are borne by their families and by all of us in BC.
The Chamber has welcomed the focus placed on addressing many of the risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease through cross-government initiatives such as ActNow BC.
Programs such as these, along with the new “Primary Health Care Charter – A Collaborative Approach” are a welcome recognition that we must address the development of chronic diseases in order to mitigate their onset and the need for treatment.
While addressing common risk factors such as tobacco, healthy diet, remaining active as well as improved access to primary healthcare are important parts of a comprehensive solution the missing element is the need for focused attention on ensuring access to the necessary proven drug therapies that are critical to our ability to manage disease and, therefore, costs on the system.
As we look to address the unsustainable increase in healthcare spending the key to our success will be looking at new ways to view healthcare. There must be a shift from the current practice of only treating the disease to view healthcare as an integrated system where investment at the right early stage will reap significant health and cost benefits in the future.
As we look to this future we will need to ensure that there is a focus on both enhanced preventative services and diagnosis along with a need to view investment in proven drug therapies as two sides of the same coin.
People living with chronic disease in our province continue to face the costly burden of these diseases, as well as the serious complications that come with not having full access to the appropriate treatments recommended by their doctor. Not being able to choose the appropriate medication or supplies to avoid or delay potential complications end up costing all British Columbia taxpayers who ultimately pay for the ensuring hospitalization and healthcare treatment.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the provincial government:
As the province looks to control the ever-escalating cost of providing quality healthcare to all British Columbians, a comprehensive Chronic Disease Management Strategy offers huge benefit for governments’ ability to control costs, as well as provide improved quality of life for the people of British Columbia.
Chronic diseases are those that can only be controlled and not, at the present, cured. Chronic diseases are those that occur across the whole spectrum of illness. They include, but are not limited to, diabetes, depression, mental health issues, asthma, arthritis, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, dementia and a range of disabling neurological conditions; chronic diseases tend to be complex conditions and are often long-lasting and persistent. Unmanaged they can produce a range of complications resulting in increased utilization of the healthcare system.
The care of people with chronic conditions also consumes a large proportion of health and social care resources. People with chronic conditions are significantly more likely to see their GP, to be admitted as inpatients, and to use more inpatient days than those without such conditions.
The World Health Organization has identified that such conditions will be the leading cause of disability by 2020 and that, if not successfully managed, will become the most expensive problem for healthcare systems.
Good chronic disease management offers a real opportunity to address this challenge through providing improvements in patient care and service quality, while also significantly reducing healthcare costs.
Chronic diseases are becoming increasingly common in BC, more common in marginalized populations and more common in our ageing population. As obesity and lack of activity increases chronic diseases such as diabetes are becoming much more common. Many older people are living with more than one chronic condition and face particular challenges, both medical and social. While more common in older people, these diseases apply to people of all ages with long-term conditions.
Indeed, in BC, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was the leading reason for hospital stays for patients admitted via ER visits, the most expensive was to treat a patient. Another example of the impact chronic disease has on the sustainability of our healthcare system is diabetes.
Diabetes is the number 1 killer in Canada today! Approximately 211,304 British Columbians live with diabetes today, and studies project an additional 178,000 will be diagnosed with the disease by 2016 – that is an 84.3% jump!
The challenge with many chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, is that they often do not stop with the initial diseases. In the case of diabetes, without access to appropriate and timely treatment required to manage the disease many diabetics risk developing serious and costly complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and even amputation. These are debilitating and often fatal to peoples with diabetes and the overall costs are borne by their families and by all of us in BC.
The Chamber has welcomed the focus placed on addressing many of the risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease through cross-government initiatives such as ActNow BC.
Programs such as these, along with the new “Primary Health Care Charter – A Collaborative Approach” are a welcome recognition that we must address the development of chronic diseases in order to mitigate their onset and the need for treatment.
While addressing common risk factors such as tobacco, healthy diet, remaining active as well as improved access to primary healthcare are important parts of a comprehensive solution the missing element is the need for focused attention on ensuring access to the necessary proven drug therapies that are critical to our ability to manage disease and, therefore, costs on the system.
As we look to address the unsustainable increase in healthcare spending the key to our success will be looking at new ways to view healthcare. There must be a shift from the current practice of only treating the disease to view healthcare as an integrated system where investment at the right early stage will reap significant health and cost benefits in the future.
As we look to this future we will need to ensure that there is a focus on both enhanced preventative services and diagnosis along with a need to view investment in proven drug therapies as two sides of the same coin.
People living with chronic disease in our province continue to face the costly burden of these diseases, as well as the serious complications that come with not having full access to the appropriate treatments recommended by their doctor. Not being able to choose the appropriate medication or supplies to avoid or delay potential complications end up costing all British Columbia taxpayers who ultimately pay for the ensuring hospitalization and healthcare treatment.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the provincial government:
- continue to support a comprehensive chronic disease management strategy that encourages a shift in the balance of care from episodic care to integrated, continuous care;
- as part of this comprehensive strategy, allocate funds for education relating to disease prevention (diabetes, etc.); and
- amend the formulary to include newer drugs and approaches to the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes and to include newfound/improved drugs that can provide measurable benefit.
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