Top health-care priority in Canada should be to hire more doctors, nurses: Nanos survey

A majority of Canadians say hiring more health-care workers should be the country's top priority when it comes to changing the current system, a recent national survey from Nanos Research shows.

The survey of more than 1,000 Canadians found 53 per cent in favour of recruiting more doctors, nurses and staff as opposed to investing more money in public health care (28 per cent) or allowing private corporations to charge for health-care services (14 per cent). Another five per cent were unsure.

The results come as hospitals, namely pediatric centres, across Canada deal with high numbers of new patients admitted for respiratory illnesses, as well as burnout among health-care workers and ongoing disagreements between the provinces and federal government around funding.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News

• Get the CTV News App now for breaking news alerts and all the top stories

Support for hiring more health-care workers was strongest in Atlantic Canada at nearly 69 per cent, the Nanos survey found, and lowest in Ontario at a little more than 49 per cent.

Atlantic Canadians were also least likely to prioritize increased funding in public health care at just over 21 per cent, while Ontarians were the most likely to support it, at a little more than 35 per cent.

A majority of men and women support recruiting more health-care workers at about 51 and 55 per cent respectively.

Canadians 55 and older were also more likely to support increased hiring at almost 59 per cent compared to those between 35 and 54 (52 per cent) and 18 to 34 (45 per cent).

Most survey respondents, or six in 10, expressed some level of support for "increasing taxes if the funds were guaranteed to be spent on public health care," Nanos says.

The results show 24 per cent support raising taxes for this purpose, while 36 per cent somewhat support the idea. Another 15 per cent somewhat oppose it, 22 per cent flat out oppose it and three per cent were unsure.

Ontario residents were more likely to support or somewhat support increased taxes at 67 per cent than residents of Quebec at about 50 per cent.

ACCESS TO CARE

Nanos also asked Canadians about their ability to access medical services in the previous three months, with one in four saying neither they nor an immediate family member were able to see a doctor or get urgent medical care.

About 43 per cent said they were able to see a doctor or get medical care, while 30 per cent did not seek care.

On the question of whether they had any experience with hospital services being closed or unavailable, a smaller proportion of Canadians (six per cent) said they had gone through this personally compared to eight per cent who said an immediate family member had.

Forty-nine per cent of those surveyed said neither they nor a family member had experienced hospital services being closed or unavailable, while 34 per cent did not seek care.

Nanos also asked respondents whether they had left the country and paid out-of-pocket for health care because wait times in Canada were so long, with only two per cent total saying they or an immediate family member had done so in the last three months.

Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land and cell lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,021 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between Dec. 19 and 22, 2022, as part of an omnibus survey. Participants were randomly recruited by telephone using live agents and administered a survey online. The sample included both land and cell lines across Canada. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada. Individuals randomly called using random digit dialing with a maximum of five callbacks. The margin of error for this survey is 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. This study was commissioned by CTV News and the research was conducted by Nanos Research.

With files from CTVNews.ca Producer Jennifer Ferreira, CTV National News Correspondent Heather Wright and The Canadian Press