Archive for the ‘Health Debates’ Category
Massive tobacco settlement at risk of being misused
Tuesday, December 10th, 2024
The settlement provides financial restitution to class-action claimants and allocates funds to a vaguely defined research foundation. But where are the funds for front-line solutions? … To ensure [meaningful change], provinces must direct funds toward lung health programs, tax all nicotine products, close gaps in vaping regulation, and institute ongoing cost-recovery fees… ensuring that the funds are allocated where they’re needed most: to education, prevention, and treatment programs that advance lung health.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Five controversial lessons to cure health care from Jane Philpott
Wednesday, December 4th, 2024
Her goal in writing Health for All is to ensure “every person living in Canada has access to a primary care home, in the same way that every child has access to a public school.” But she acknowledges that it will require a transformation that challenges current thinking, practices and interests… 1. The federal government has a role in public health care, despite complaints from the provinces… 3. Phase out fee-for-service payments and put doctors on salary…
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation
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The Nurse Practitioner Answer to the Primary Care Crisis
Sunday, October 27th, 2024
Another factor [to explain Canadians’ seemingly sudden disenchantment with their healthcare system]may be the reluctance of provincial governments to undertake major institutional reforms. Since the 1990s, when serious budget deficits necessitated action, most provinces have been reluctant to provoke opposition from powerful interest groups, in particular physicians’ associations… As a result of this opposition, some NPs are underemployed in rural and remote communities or underutilized in urban hospitals…
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
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Province Appoints Dr. Jane Philpott as Chair of New Primary Care Action Team
Thursday, October 24th, 2024
Dr. Philpott will oversee… the connection of every Ontarian with primary care services within the next five years… with input from other primary health care leaders across the province, she will provide and implement an action plan ensuring the Minister of Health can further expand team-based primary health care across the province… This plan will ensure better service on weekends and after-hours, reducing the significant administrative burden on family doctors and other primary care professionals and improving connections to specialists and digital tools.
Tags: featured, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation
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Ford’s bungling of Ontario’s nursing shortage is aimed at undermining public health care
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
… staff shortages and long wait-lists in Ontario are problems that were greatly exacerbated by Ford’s mishandling of the nursing crisis. Could it be that the dissatisfaction with our health-care system may be best solved — not by introducing a lot of private, profit-making clinics — but simply by paying nurses good wages within the public system?
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
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We’re doctors. This is the glaring hole we see in our national health care conversation
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
Eliminating out-of-pocket costs for medications used to treat diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic respiratory conditions would result in 220,000 fewer ER visits and 90,000 less hospital stays annually, saving the health care system $1.2 billion a year… Unaffordable drugs invoke worry, helplessness and dread and creates a potentially damaging dependency. Granted, it’s difficult to assign a savings to the emotional costs currently being paid, but it’s intellectually dishonest to not even mention them.
Tags: disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, poverty, standard of living
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Why Such Blind Spots Still Exist in Medecine
Sunday, September 29th, 2024
With trust in science on the wane, conspiracy theories and misinformation proliferating and anti-vaxxers… setting a deranged example, this may not seem like the best time to criticize the medical profession. Yet a dose of healthy skepticism may be the healthiest attitude when information seems contradictory, whether it’s about a decades-long practice or newer, faddish procedures…
Tags: Health, ideology
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I’ve used a Toronto supervised consumption site for a year. What it’s really like in these facilities Doug Ford is bent on shuttering
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024
The Queen West site provided me with more than a place to safely use drugs. The staff provided medical attention when I needed it, food and snacks when I was hungry, water and juice when I was thirsty, a sympathetic ear and a hug when I despaired. Through them, I was connected with a phenomenal support worker from Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre… They have been my advocate and biggest supporter. With their help, obstacles that seemed insurmountable have vanished.
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical
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The Ford government gets it wrong on drugs
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024
… on what basis has the government concluded that these sites are doing more to aggravate than to mitigate the drug crisis? On what basis has it concluded that public use is more likely to fall and public safety to rise as these sites close? What, other than the political mood or the premier’s oft-stated personal distaste, led it to this decision? The answers to these questions are not apparent either in the government’s announcement or in the available evidence.
Tags: crime prevention, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical
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Pierre Poilievre’s attack on me is a symptom of a larger problem
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024
Poilievre’s referring to these sites as “drug dens” is callous and deceptive. These sites offer a lifeline to those struggling with substance use. The very same harm reduction programs that some leaders are targeting don’t only save lives; they also open the door to treatment and recovery… Instead of mocking, Poilievre and his team could benefit from experts to understand the evidence on the importance of supervised consumption sites as an essential pillar of a multi-pronged approach to address this public health crisis and to make our communities safer for all.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
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