A new compassionate care initiative announced in the February federal budget will provide new benefits for Canadians but is also likely to mean more paperwork for physicians.
Starting Jan. 4, 2004, $970 million will be set aside over 5 years to provide 6 weeks of employment insurance benefits to people who must take time off work to care for gravely ill or dying children, parents or spouses.
“At the end of life, we rely on family members for a wide variety of things, from psychological support to actually caring, so this is really to recognize that a lot of people leave work during those periods,” says Wilma Vreeswijk, director general of labour-market policy with Human Resources Development Canada. “They and their families go through a lot of personal and financial stress. This is to provide that kind of support.”
But the new program also means that physicians will have a new form to sign, since medical certificates will be required to confirm all applications. Vreeswijk says there's already been consultation with medical associations and palliative care physicians to design simple, user-friendly certificates to alleviate any confusion or problems when the initiative is implemented. She said the department hopes the lengthy consultation period will ensure smooth implementation, with minimal additional work for doctors.
“We're not in the world [to add] to people's burden,” she said. “We're really trying to alleviate that problem.” — Tim Lai, CMAJ