The report is part of the First Ministers’ commitment to provide clear reporting on health to Canadians, an initiative that began in September of 2002. Measuring, tracking and reporting to citizens on health status and the health care system’s performance allows Canadians to determine how successful the provinces have been in attaining common goals and objectives; helps those responsible for health care delivery to make more informed choices; promotes the identification and sharing of best practices; and helps Canadians understand how publicly-funded health services are being delivered.

Minister of Health and Social Services Chester Gillan says the report gives Islanders the opportunity to compare provincial results with the national average, which keeps things in perspective.

“Rather than viewing Island statistics in isolation, this report gives us the national context,” Minister Gillan said. “When we compare the access to service indicators for Prince Edward Island with the national average, we can see that, although approximately 17 percent to 27 percent of Islanders reported having difficulty accessing various services, that difficulty is experienced to a similar extent at a national level.”

In addition to providing information regarding access to health care, the report also provides information regarding the quality of services. The majority of Islanders reported being “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the health services they had received. For community-based services and hospital-care services, the Island’s satisfaction rates were statistically similar to the national rate. Satisfaction rates for overall health-care services and physician-care services were higher than the national rate.

Similarly, the majority of Islanders rated their health as “very good” or “excellent,” which is higher than the national average. While teenage smoking rates, the prevalence of diabetes and flu immunization rates were in line with the national average, the report indicates that less than one quarter of the province is physically active, and approximately 58 per cent of Islanders are overweight or obese.

A summary of the PEI Second Report on Common Health Indicators is available from the government Web site at www.gov.pe.ca/hss. The entire report, including many additional indicators and results of other provinces, will be available December 1 in English at www.cihi.ca/comparable-indicators, and in French at www.icis.ca/indicateurs-comparables.