CDA News: Dr. Peter Doig attends Minister Ambrose’s address to the Economic Club of Canada

On January 30, 2014, Dr. Peter Doig, President of the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) attended Minister Ambrose’s address to the Economic Club of Canada.

Minister Ambrose highlighted the Government of Canada’s work to harness the tremendous potential of innovation to improve the quality and fiscal sustainability of Canada`s health system. She underscored the importance of innovation and health partnerships to help improve the future financial sustainability and quality of healthcare for Canadians and announced the creation of a wise person’s panel to examine innovation in healthcare.

Key Speech Messages 

Health Canada’s focus will be on: 

• Patient care
• Health outcomes
• Reduced cost of delivering health care

Impact on Dentistry

• Reduced Cost: in her the speech, the Minister referred to reduced cost of delivering not just government-delivered health care, but of total health care in Canada, including dental care.   
• The willingness of the government to partner with not-for-profit, such as CDA which has programs and services intended to address oral health issues in Canada. 

Issues Currently Under Discussion Between CDA and Health Canada

• Providing oral health care to First Nations and Inuit populations through the non-insured health benefits program.
• Challenges in funding research on oral health care in Canada.
• Concerns with the abuse of prescription narcotics.

Speaking about the National Oral Health Action Plan (NOHAP)

On February 27th, 2014, CDA will hold a symposium to attempt to develop a blueprint for the National Oral Health Action Plan. All relevant stakeholders in oral health care, general health care, government, regulators, and special interest groups are invited to participate in the symposium.  

Listen to the audio interview

Visit our Podcasts Page to download the audio interview