montreal

The Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC) is planning to combine the country's 16 main academic health science centres and all other academic elements of the healthcare system into an integrated body, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

At present, the various components are only loosely coordinated. The proposed body would bring together the 16 health science centres, 50 teaching hospitals and 65 research institutes, which together employ more than 150,000 people full-time. Their combined annual operating budget is about Can$16 billion (US$10.9 billion).

The draft of the plan says that creation of the institutes “would energize the health research enterprise the way Medicare did the hospitals and health professionals more than 30 years ago with linkages and coordination around agreed national principles, supported by internationally competitive funding levels.”

It adds that the Canadian health research enterprise constitutes an enormous asset base with the potential to become an even more effective foundation for the healthcare system. Modern information technology allows a degree of collaboration and sharing “that would encourage great research synergies”.

The new integrated network “would identify and set priorities among emerging health issues,” says the draft. Information flow would be stimulated between basic and clinical research and practice. This would decrease the lag “between precept and practice, and expedite the translation of new knowledge into effective patient care.”

Salary support would be provided to those engaged in important and innovative research, and research teams identified as capable of internationally competitive work would receive “internationally commensurate levels of funding”.

The draft plan notes that health research funding in Canada has not kept pace with that in the other leading industrialized (G7) countries. Although this year's federal budget provided an increase in funding in MRC's base budget, the present level (Can$267 million) is at 1994-95 levels.

Canada's healthcare system is operated by provincial and territorial governments, with about 25 per cent of funding coming from federal government tax transfers, which have been falling in recent years, and through direct cash payments. Canadian health spending, forecast at Can$76.6 billion in 1997, is approximately Can$2,500 per person.

Federal health minister Allan Rock has already discussed the plan with the MRC. All representative groups will now be contacted and a national conference will be held in October.