An overwhelming majority of baby boomers heading into their Golden Years are calling on governments to develop a national senior-care strategy, says a Canadian Medical Association (CMA) national report card on health care.

The advocacy report, released Monday, says 95 per cent of baby-boom Canadians aged 45 years and older back such a plan. Meanwhile, nearly four in five – or 78 per cent – of respondents worry about their ability to access quality home and long-term care in retirement.

An Ipsos Reid poll backed up the report and indicated Canadians believe a national seniors-care strategy would improve health care. Such a plan would see more elderly patients cared for at home or in long-term care facilities, alleviating chronic hospital bed shortages that are pushing up wait times for everything from emergency treatment to hip transplants.

"As the Canadian baby-boom generation looks down the road to the future, they see clearly that Canada desperately needs a seniors strategy and politicians should pay attention during the next federal election," CMA president Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti said in a statement.

"This should be an issue one would ignore at their own political peril."

Medical and health-care advocacy groups have pressed all governments to expand resources for seniors care, and the Ontario government has poured more money into its Action Plan for Seniors strategy.

The plan aims to deal with the fact that the number of seniors in Ontario is slated to double over the next two decades from two million to 4.1 million people.

By 2017, for the first time, more Ontarians will be older than 65 than younger than 15.

Ontario's seniors strategy aims to improve income security for poor seniors, prevent elder abuse, boost regulation of retirement and long-term care homes, increase tax credits and keep more seniors staying active.

The recent Ontario budget says the seniors action plan "is focused on addressing the growing needs of the province's aging population and providing seniors with better access to health care, quality resources and improving safety and security."

Ipsos Reid's public affairs vice-president Mike Colledge says the poll results for the national medical association "highlight the urgency of this issue and that it remains a pertinent concern for all those interested in accessing efficient health care as they age – both for themselves and their loved ones."

The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted by phone between July 17 and July 24 with 1,000 Canadians aged 45 years and older. This sample is accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times in 20.

CMA calls for national seniors-care strategy

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