Archive for the ‘Health Delivery System’ Category
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Home-care system in free fall after more cuts
… the Liberal government had been pressuring hospitals to discharge patients quickly in order to save money. But… failed to provide enough money for the home-care sector, leaving patients with empty promises of at-home or community services that ultimately amounted to only a few home visits or none at all. Regrettably, under Hoskins’ watch, that trend is continuing — and indeed may be escalating.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, standard of living
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Ontario health minister orders data on clinics made public
Hoskins said he is amending the Ontario Public Health Standards to require mandatory public reporting of inspection and investigation reports. He also plans to improve oversight of clinics with a view to improving patient safety. He has asked for advice on this from Health Quality Ontario, an independent government agency that assesses and reports on quality in different parts of the health system.
Tags: Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Seniors on stretchers: a health care disgrace
They’re not sick enough to be hospitalized, but too sick to go home alone, or back to a nursing home where there is no medical care. We don’t need bigger ERs. We need to shift resources from hospitals into primary care for the ambulatory and home care and community care for the non-ambulatory.
Tags: child care, disabilities, Health, standard of living
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Health Canada needs to show backbone with drug companies
… for two months the department refused to make public the drugs that were being made with the suspect ingredients — leaving them in Canada’s pharmacies and hospitals… Health Canada – whose job is to protect consumers — is putting Canadians’ health at risk with its secrecy and overly cozy relationship with the pharmaceutical giants… Contrast that weak-kneed response to that of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration… The latest revelations are not isolated.
Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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The big hole in Canada’s public health leadership needs to be filled
Public health officials are among the lowest-paid physicians, so they’re not in it for the money. But what a CPHO needs to do the job properly is independence – the freedom to speak bluntly to the public and to speak truth to power within the government. That freedom does not exist under Stephen Harper. This government has notoriously muzzled scientists and bureaucrats.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
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The hidden waste in Ontario health care
No doubt further efficiencies can be found in any system as large as Ontario’s, but the easy gains have been exhausted. There is simply less operational fat to cut. To find the savings needed to help balance the provincial budget and further improve care in the province, Ontario needs to change its focus from efficiency to appropriateness of care… Even taking potential differences due to geography and socio-economic factors into account, the variation in surgeries and hospital utilization rates is surprising.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
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What Canadian health care lacks is action, not innovation
What we lack is not innovation, it’s action. What we really need in Canada is a task force on implementation… we know what needs to be done. In fact, what is striking about the dizzying array of reports on health-care reform that this country has produced in the past half-century is that they essentially all reach the same conclusions. The priorities for reform can be easily summed up in two short lists – one for the delivery side and one on the payment side.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Was B.C.’s push for better primary health care a $1-billion bust?
Since 2006, British Columbia has spent more than $1-billion to improve primary health care… incentive payments in B.C. have increased the annual incomes of participating doctors by $32,000. So it is clear that doctors’ earnings have increased sizably, but… patients do not appear to have improved access to their primary care physician, and their care continues to be fractured, handled across a range of individuals and settings.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology
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How New Brunswick is making medicare sustainable
Mr. Flemming put a cap on medicare billings after doctors took the government to court and lost… Across the system, efficiency gains became a mantra. A health administration that had 12 vice-presidents wound up with four. Laundry services were consolidated. Accountability for spending was beefed up… About $100-million came out of the hospital system, $160-million from the Department of Health. None of the province’s 22 hospitals closed.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
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Ontario nurses say patient care is compromised by increasing workloads
Ontario has the second-lowest rate of registered nurses per capita in Canada (70.8 RNs for every 10,000 residents), and among the lowest rates of registered practical nurses (23.5), despite a slight rise in their overall numbers last year. One reason for the increased workload is that patient volumes in Ontario hospitals continue to rise, especially in emergency departments… nurses must deal with high patient turnover and acute-care beds that are full all the time.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | 2 Comments »
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