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Days of blindly topping up medicare are over
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Nov. 23, 2011
…the CHT gives Ottawa the moral authority (if not the legal right) to impose conditions on provincial health spending, and to create a semblance of a national system… hospitals, physicians, nurses, patients or others, have been saying for years that they want Ottawa to place strict conditions on the CHT as a way of ensuring specific programs are undertaken.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Despite Insite victory, Canada’s drug strategy is deeply flawed
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Oct. 03, 2011
A comprehensive drug strategy has four pillars: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. The court has shored up one of those pillars, harm reduction. The government has embraced one other, enforcement. The other two key elements, prevention and treatment, have been starved of funds, leaving us with a teetering response to one of society’s biggest public-health challenges – drug misuse and addiction.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
A four-part action plan in the battle against teen suicide
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
ACCESSIBILITY The number one challenge is getting timely help… PREVENTION … you need to identify those at risk. Many people, especially the young, keep their torment secret… INTERVENTION … “hotlines aren’t enough… They just help direct people to help. The help has to be there.” … AFTERCARE … one of the more neglected ways to prevent suicide is follow-up care for friends and family…
Tags: budget, mental Health, standard of living, youth
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
What kind of health system does Ontario want?
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Jul. 07, 2011
Do we want the system in which administrative power is centralized in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care in Toronto? Or do we want a highly decentralized system in which regional authorities have real power? …Planning and management should not be dirty words. And those who want to lead the government should articulate their vision of how that system should be run. “Scrap LHINs” is not a vision; it’s a cop-out.
Tags: budget, Health, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
… superbug outbreak abates, but enemy still lurks
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Jul. 14, 2011
… handwashing is necessary for health-care workers, patients and visitors. But in Canada, we too often skimp on support staff like janitors. It’s not enough, however, to throw bodies with mops into the equation: In health care, everything should be evidence-based… Just as important as preventing the spread of pathogens is minimizing patient susceptibility… There is a lot of evidence that antibiotics are overused… But more than anything.. a change of attitude is needed. We need to empower patients and their families with basic information.
Tags: Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Tories set to steer new course on health care funding
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May. 28, 2011
The Canada Health Transfer, which currently provides $27-billion in cash and $13.6-billion in tax points, expires in 2014… bilateral agreements are a real possibility because the Conservatives have said repeatedly that health is strictly a provincial matter… [and] that they are going to revamp the federal-provincial fiscal arrangement… One of the… proposals… suggested that Ottawa do away with the myriad programs it has for transfers and equalization payments and instead turn over the monies collected from the federal GST to the provinces.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Is tobacco control no longer a federal priority?
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May. 25, 2011
In the past decade, the smoking rate has fallen to 18 per cent from 25 per cent. That falls well short of the target of 12 per cent established in the FTCS. And, worse yet, the smoking rate has held steady for several years now, which tells us that new smokers are replacing those who die… Over the past five years, [Health Canada] has routinely underspent its program budget by $9-million to $15-million annually… Smoking rates are highest in aboriginal communities, yet Ottawa inexplicably canceled the first nations and Inuit tobacco control strategy and replaced it with a few small projects…
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Bell’s $10-million donation hailed as mental-health game-changer
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
May. 12, 2011
CAMH is in the midst of a massive redevelopment that is transforming its archaic facilities on Queen Street in Toronto into a modern campus where clinicians, researchers and educators will work side-by-side with patients in a supportive environment… The new corporate gift will pay for the Bell Gateway Building that will serve as the “front door” to the new campus. George Cope, president and CEO of Bell and BCE Inc., said he hopes the large and visible donation will encourage others to follow suit. “We felt this was an area where we could use our brand to make a difference.”
Tags: budget, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
It’s time to find a cure for the problem of how doctors are paid
Saturday, April 30th, 2011
Apr. 28, 2011
… the fastest-growing health expense in Canada is not drugs, it is physician services… there are more doctors – 68,100 and rising. In the last year alone, there has been a net gain of 2,700 physicians… Three-quarters of physician payments are made on a fee-for-service basis… it is open-ended. Physicians can see as many patients as they wish (or is practical) and bill for services rendered – even if that care could be more efficiently delivered by a nurse or pharmacist. It creates an incentive for over-consumption… a phenomenon known in the literature as supplier-induced demand.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Government-sanctioned online gambling: short-sighted and morally bankrupt
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Apr. 21, 2011
There are few public policies that are more short-sighted, misguided and morally bankrupt. Gambling is unhealthy – financially, socially and, sometimes, physically… All gambling is tends to be anti-social activity – a destroyer of families and relationships – and never more so than when done online… Canada has essentially taken a “we can’t do anything about it” attitude, even though one of the biggest online gambling hubs in the world is located in Kahnawake, a native reserve just outside Montreal.
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 1 Comment »
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