Three dead, two hospitalized, following collision in Fredericton: police
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
A new report has ranked Canada's health system second last, ahead of the United States, among high-income countries.
The report, released on Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund, ranked 11 high-income countries on key health-system measures, including equity, access to care, affordability, health-care outcomes, and administrative efficiency.
The report found that the top-performing health systems overall are in Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia, while Switzerland, Canada and the U.S. were the countries with the worst health-care systems, respectively.
However, the report noted that the U.S. performance falls "far below" Switzerland and Canada's, despite these countries being ranked directly above it.
In addition to its overall ranking, the study noted that the U.S. ranks last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health-care outcomes, but second for preventative care processes, such as screenings and vaccinations.
The report said countries were ranked by an expert advisory panel using Commonwealth Fund international surveys conducted in each country prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as administrative data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Health Organization.
The report ranked Canada 10th overall, as well as in two major categories: equity and health-care outcomes.
The report found that income-related disparities in accessing health care are largest in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Norway.
"Compared to the other countries, the United States and Canada had larger income-related inequities in patient reported experiences," the study noted.
The inequities include financial barriers to accessing medical and dental care, medical bill burdens, difficulty obtaining after-hours care, and the use of web portals to facilitate patient engagement.
In regard to health-care outcome metrics, defined in the report as those outcomes that can be improved by the delivery of health-care services, Canada ranked 10th after taking into account mortality rates and life expectancy.
Compared to other countries, the report found that Canada spends less on social programs, such as early childhood education, parental leave, and income supports for single parents, which impact health-care services.
Canada also ranked 9th out of the 11 countries for access to care, with the report citing the country's health-care system's affordability and timeliness as reason for its placement.
To improve one's health system, the report says countries need to ensure they provide universal coverage to help remove cost barriers, primary-care services should be expanded to every local community, administrative burdens should be reduced to free up resources, and they need to invest in social services, specifically for children and working-age adults.
While the report acknowledges that no health system is perfect, the panel recommends countries look to one another to see what has worked and what has not.
In doing so, the report says countries may move closer to the "ideal of a health system that achieves optimal health for all its people" at an affordable price.
"International comparisons allow the public, policymakers, and health-care leaders to see alternative approaches to delivering health care, ones that might be borrowed to build better health systems that yield better health outcomes," the report said.
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
One person was killed and 23 others were injured when a bus crashed early Sunday on Interstate 95 in northern Maryland, police said.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.