The CCS advocates for quality cardiovascular care by working to shape health care policy in Canada to improve standards of care and patient outcomes. This section contains information about areas of health care that CCS has actively been engaged in order to bring awareness and improvements to Canadian health policies.

Health Policy Focus

The CCS membership provides tremendous leadership and countless volunteer hours to help shape Canadian health policy in two main areas: wait times for care and workforce.

The CCS has taken an active role in Canada's Wait Time Alliance. CCS members met with the Prime Minister and federal and provincial ministers of health to discuss development of national benchmarks for cardiac care. The final report, It's About Time! Achieving Benchmarks and Best Practices in Wait Time Management, was published in August 2005 and is available through the CCS web site.

The CCS Health Human Resources Working Group brought the issues of Canada's cardiovascular workforce to the forefront in a report entitled Profile of the Cardiovascular Specialist Physician Workforce in Canada. Using data from the CCS workforce survey 2001 and updates from the 2004 National Physician Survey and other resources, the Group identified trends and issues impacting the demand for cardiovascular specialists in Canada. These issues remain a critical focus of ongoing activity for CCS.

For more information, please contact:

Louise Marcus
Director, Health Policy / Advocacy
Directrice, Politique de la santé et défense des intérêts
Tel / tél : 877/613-569-3407 ext. / poste 412
Fax / téléc : 613-569-6574
marcus@ccs.ca