THUNDER BAY — Reforming Canada’s health-care system is top-of-mind for one of the four candidates competing to be the next leader of the federal Liberal Party.
Frank Baylis, a former MP who served from 2015 to 2019 and who is currently the chair of his own company — Baylis Medical Technologies — said the system was designed in the 1960s with a focus on acute care, or treating patients with immediate injuries or illnesses. Baylis said it now requires a “paradigm shift” to focus on care for chronic issues.
“Today, we have a system that needs chronic care,” he told Newswatch. “Meaning if you have diabetes, heart disease, cancer, you now live where you didn't live before, and you can live quite a good life, but we need a system designed for that.”
Liberal Party members are voting on their next leader after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in January his intention to resign. Baylis is running against Karina Gould, a three-term MP and cabinet minister, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney and former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The party is expected to announce the winner on March 9.
Baylis, who said he brings a good mix of experience in government and the private sector to the race, said his health-care plan involves “opening more doors.”
Currently, he said there are only two: a doctor and the emergency room.
“We all know what they tell you to do when you don't have a doctor (or) you can't see the doctor — go to the emergency room,” Baylis said.
“And we're using the emergency room for something that it was never designed for.”
That, in turn, he said leads to longer wait times in emergency and frustration with the system.
Baylis said he’s proposing to expand the scope of practice of pharmacists, train about 6,000 nurses to become nurse practitioners and give them a roster of about 1,000 patients, and prioritize and improve home care.
“Really make this a priority, because when people are in their homes, they're happier, they're better,” he said.
Baylis said he feels his ideas are resonating with people.
“It's been very well received because everybody knows it's not a money problem,” he said, adding that “if we do this the right way, we're actually going to save money.”
“It's not going to cost us more, it's going to cost us less because we've been using the wrong tool — we've had a hammer, so everything looks like a nail,” he continued.
“We don't need a bigger hammer, we need to use the right tool.”