Medical Students Meet with Members of Parliament on Steps to Improve Seniors Care and Aging for all Canadians

OTTAWA, Feb. 4, 2019 /CNW/ - Over 70 medical students from across Canada are on Parliament Hill today to meet with Members of Parliament and policy advisors to discuss concrete actions to improve seniors care and healthy aging in Canada.

The Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) believes that every Canadian deserves to age with dignity, with access to necessary supports and appropriate resources and care. The CFMS calls upon all Members of Parliament to:

1. Commit to targeted funding and development of a National Seniors Strategy for the 2019 federal election.
2. Commit to the development of a national evidence-based formulary as a first step towards designing and implementing a truly universal, comprehensive, and cost-effective National Pharmacare Program that provides access to drugs for all Canadians. Work in collaboration with national experts to promote targeted deprescribing to minimize polypharmacy.
3. Support national leadership on developing and tracking quality indicators, to enhance the quality of and access to home care, palliative care, and community care provided in the provinces/territories, at the next Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Seniors Forum.

As medical students progress through their education and clinical training, they learn how to become compassionate and competent physicians as they practise the skills needed to provide care for seniors and older adults in various health care settings. Medical students understand the importance of supporting a diverse Canadian population to age in a healthy and dignified way that is acceptable to each individual and sustainable for the health care system. Aging Canadians have a lifetime of knowledge, experiences skills, and history that they should be given the chance to share with the rest of society.

"Medical students acknowledge the unique needs of seniors and an aging population, but also the importance of supporting individuals throughout their lifespan to age in a healthy way. Over the past 4 months, medical students had the privilege of speaking to community leaders, and their advice and guidance stands true for us as medical students, as it does for policy-makers, to treat the person, not the disease, and to think about health holistically," says Linda Lam, CFMS National Officer of Political Action.

The demographics of Canada are quickly changing, and it is critical to be proactive in designing care, services and policies that will meet seniors' care needs and support healthy aging. Prioritizing seniors care and healthy aging now will help relieve many of the pressures our system is facing today, including overcrowded hospitals, and support Canadians in aging with dignity.

For more information on CFMS' advocacy work, please visit https://www.cfms.org/.

QUOTATIONS FROM THE CFMS:
"We wholeheartedly recognize the importance of ensuring that medical education and clinical training reflect the realities and needs of seniors and that appropriate and sufficient health and social resources are made accessible and available for the benefit of all seniors in Canada. Our message to Parliamentarians today is simple: you have a crucial role in helping the future generation of physicians in delivering appropriate and compassionate care to seniors and the aging population of Canada. It is time to be bold in providing fundamental rights to Canada's patients — today and tomorrow."
- Yipeng Ge, CFMS Director of Government Affairs

"Today, we have an opportunity to bring awareness to and ensure commitment by our Parliamentarians to help our work as future physicians. As medical students, we will be providing care to seniors in the health care system tomorrow. By investing in seniors care now, we can be proactive in planning and delivering the care that we would want as all of us age."
- Linda Lam, CFMS National Officer of Political Action

ABOUT THE CANADIAN FEDERATION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS:
The Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) is the national organization representing over 8,000 Canadian medical students from 15 medical schools across Canada. We represent medical students to the public, to the federal government, and to national and international medical organizations. We are tomorrow's physicians leading for health today.

SOURCE Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS)