STATEMENT -Health Ministers missed opportunity to provide solutions to improve access to health care: CMA

CALGARY, AB, Oct. 17, 2025 /CNW/ - Federal, provincial and territorial health ministers missed an opportunity this week to provide Canadians with tangible solutions to the many barriers to accessing care across the country.

We know what the solutions are. Over the past three days, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) met with health ministers to discuss solutions that could improve access to care and reduce the burden that health workers face from coast to coast.   

Governments need to reduce barriers to immigration and enable doctors to work when and where their patients need them. They need to create standards so that digital health systems can communicate with each other and remove onerous and time-consuming paperwork that keeps doctors from caring for their patents.

At this pivotal moment when Canadians are seeking care and governments are exploring how to build a stronger country, we need to use every tool in our collective toolbox to address the access to primary care crisis. Canada is short approximately 23,000 family doctors and 43,000 nurses. It is time to work with all levels of government to ensure every Canadian has access to the care they need.

Canadian patients and their providers deserve better. We can do better.

I thank our partners in advocacy this week: the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. It is a pleasure working in partnership to help create better health care for all.

Dr. Margot Burnell
CMA President

About the CMA
The Canadian Medical Association leads a national movement with physicians who believe in a better future of health. Our ambition is a sustainable, accessible health system where patients are partners, a culture of medicine that elevates equity, diversity and wellbeing, and supportive communities where everyone has the chance to be healthy. We drive change through advocacy, giving and knowledge sharing – guided by values of collaboration and inclusion.

SOURCE Canadian Medical Association