As the so-called “grey tsunami" becomes a realized health care pressure around the world, it's time for health system partners in Ontario to take steps toward addressing a rapidly aging population.
As the Baby Boomer generation ages, the number of individuals aged 65-84, and 85 and older will reach unprecedented highs. In the next 20 years, Canada's senior population will rise by 68 per cent. As such, demand on Ontario's health care system will grow significantly due to higher numbers of older Ontarians with increasingly complex health needs.
At the same time, the overall population is growing. Ontario's population is expected to increase by three million people over the next 10 years, and Canada's total population could reach 63 million by 2073.
Ensuring that Ontario's health care system is equipped to meet future demand requires the right mix of health care services to serve these evolving needs, enabling Ontarians to receive care in the most appropriate setting.
Currently, a significant number of seniors are waiting in hospitals for an alternate level of care (ALC) – care they can receive elsewhere – such as home care services, long-term care, or access to primary care. Across Ontario, more than 4,500 patients are waiting in hospitals for other types of care due to a lack of capacity across the health care system.
A 2020 report from Don Drummond, Duncan Sinclair and Rebekah Bergen, titled Ageing Well, found that far too many Canadian seniors are placed in settings that are not conducive to “aging well". They suggest that healthy aging “… will require a major policy change, a shift in the status quo, putting emphasis on the housing, lifestyle, and social needs of the elderly equal to that now given to meeting their care." In Ontario, this report continues to reflect reality.
When patients are unable to leave the hospital when their care has been completed due to capacity challenges elsewhere in the system, it creates a backlog within the hospital and leads to longer wait times for other patients requiring admission to the hospital, including from the emergency department.
As part of a push for constructive solutions for the future, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) has called for comprehensive capacity planning that ensures the right type of capacity is available across the health care system for seniors, including in long-term care, home and community care, and primary care, and that continued investments are made to support research into healthy aging.
The Government of Ontario has made significant investments in home and community care is also in progress, as it is not only the more cost-effective option – it is also the preference of seniors, their caregivers, and their families.
Many seniors in Ontario lack access to primary care, and expanding primary care options for seniors will alleviate pressures on hospitals and ensure that older adults are receiving the care they need close to home.
Moreover, there is an opportunity to tap into the enormous potential of technology and innovation to transform the way care is delivered, including for seniors. Ontario's hospitals are already embracing these opportunities, with ground-breaking research in seniors' and dementia care already underway. Thanks to these breakthroughs, seniors are living longer, healthier lives in the community using innovative mobility devices, dementia prevention approaches, and virtual care and medication management tools. Moving forward, innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence and biomedical technology innovations, as well as health system process transformation, hold enormous potential for the future.
Seniors across Ontario deserve to age with dignity, and that reality is achievable. The challenge of the “grey tsunami" calls for new and innovative approaches to health care delivery and the involvement of all health system partners. Together, hospitals, health care providers and all levels of government can create a sustainable and equitable health system prepared to meet the demands of the future.