Archive for the ‘Health Delivery System’ Category

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I had to turn another patient away: It doesn’t have to be that way

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

It’s actually physically impossible for a solo family doctor to keep up with all the needed acute, chronic and preventive care, let alone look after their many results and consult notes while running what amounts to a small business… Primary care teams are urgently needed to share these responsibilities and make the most of family doctors’ skills… also needed is a clear vision and a steadfast commitment to reconstructing primary care.

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Why is Ontario embracing private health care? The Scandinavian experience shows it hurts both the quality and choice of care

Tuesday, February 20th, 2024

A new report examines trends in Sweden, Norway, the United States, France and Great Britain, where the pursuit of profit by financial capital is systematically devouring public funding, eroding quality of care and degrading working conditions. Sound familiar? It should: The tapeworm economy has arrived in Ontario, and we need to control it… The escalating profitization of care gobbles up funds that could improve care.

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How better and cheaper software could save millions of dollars while improving Canada’s health-care system

Monday, February 5th, 2024

Although the Canadian federal government has invested over $2.1 billion developing health information technology (HIT), all 10 provinces still have their own separate HIT systems. Besides being an obvious source of redundancy and waste, these systems: do not work together, are expensive and are inconsistent… we analyzed the economic costs and savings of integrating some of the functions of the software…

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No end to the ER crisis without investments and addressing workers’ concerns

Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

We recently estimated that dealing with those pressures and bringing back the quality of care in our hospitals to an acceptable standard would require a $1.25 billion annual investment after offsetting costs of inflation. But so far, the Ford government is letting the hospitals deteriorate while it sits on $5.4 billion in contingency funding. If this government is serious about addressing the hospital crisis, it must commit to historic investments immediately.

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Everything we know (so far) about the Canadian Dental Care Plan

Sunday, January 14th, 2024

The program will roll out over two years. By May 2024, everyone over the age of 65 who meets eligibility requirements will be able to apply… By the end of the year, qualifying disabled people and those under 18 should be enrolled. After that, enrollment will open to all other eligible Canadians who meet the income threshold (less than $90,000 in household take-home pay) and don’t have access to private insurance through their employer… Program eligibility will depend on the income reported on your previous-year tax return.

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Critical nursing shortage puts patients at risk

Saturday, December 30th, 2023

As the health care crisis rages unabated across the country, it is nurses who are holding our health systems together through grit, determination and a shocking amount of overtime… Fixing the nursing shortage is not just about adding more nurses to the system; it’s about addressing the conditions that have created this dire crisis… Relying on excessive overtime or costly private nurse agencies as short-term fixes only exacerbates the systemic challenges facing health care.

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Health care is the Ontario government’s job one. Shouldn’t they be better at it?

Thursday, December 7th, 2023

… this year’s reports on the health-care system are a reminder that spending less is not the same thing as spending well and that, in some cases at least, you need to spend more public money to fix important policy problems. Ontario may be training a record number of nurses, but if we want them to stay in this province, we’ll likely need to pay them more than we currently do — not least because Ontario currently pays nurses less than does any other province… for all the billions of dollars that the government taxes and spends to keep the system running

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Hospitals plagued by staff shortages and ER closures under Ford government, auditor general finds

Wednesday, December 6th, 2023

Plagued by shortages of doctors and nurses and persistent emergency room closures, Ontario lacks a province-wide strategy to fix the problems, the watchdog agency said in a wide-ranging audit of government performance… The worsening staff shortages have been fuelled by the Ford government’s Bill 124, which limited nurses and many other public sector workers to maximum annual pay hikes of one per cent, the auditor found.

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Learn these three simple numbers to help prevent suicide

Friday, December 1st, 2023

Responders at 9-8-8 are trained in suicide prevention and are based at existing helplines across the country. They will listen with compassion and empathy and give callers and texters space to share without being judged. Responders will work with callers and texters to explore ways to cope and pathways to safety when things are overwhelming… It is important to note that while 9-8-8 will help keep people safe in the moment, it is not a replacement for mental health care provided in primary care, in communities and in hospitals.

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We are walking down the dangerous path of health care privatization

Tuesday, November 21st, 2023

… medicare restrictions on physicians are provincially and territorially imposed, so many virtual clinics skirt the rules by employing physicians licenced in a different jurisdiction than the patient lives. Resolving these loopholes is not impossible — simply fold nurse practitioners into the same medicare legislation physicians work under and bring in nationwide physician licencing. Yet there seems to be no appetite on the part of health ministries to address these issues.

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