Archive for the ‘Health Delivery System’ Category
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How the productivity of Canada’s health care stacks up to the U.S.
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Jun 19, 2012
There is simply no easy way to monetize the most common measures of health outcomes, like life expectancy and infant mortality. Still, getting a gauge on the sector’s performance is crucial, given the rising importance of health care to the Canadian economy, a trend that is not set to change given demographic pressures… Canada’s major health outcomes measure at about the OECD average, while our spending tends to be substantially higher than average.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Rich-poor divide in Toronto’s hospitals
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
June 13, 2012
Those walk-in patients who clog emergency departments with non-urgent ailments? Probably not your middle-class neighbours with their coughing, feverish children. The majority are low-income Torontonians with nowhere else to go… two lessons from Hospital Care for All. The first is that “very low-income people are using the parts of the health-care system that are in greatest crisis.” The second is that to reduce hospital use “people need the ability to pay for healthy foods, buy medicine and live in a healthy place where they can receive home care.”
Tags: Health, poverty
Posted in Health Delivery System, Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada should look to U.S. for health reforms
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Jun. 10 2012
In the United States, nine physician groups have identified 45 tests or procedures that are commonly used, but are of no proven medical benefit… in Ontario, where the government has lowered the fees of specialists to reflect technological advances… the OMA [has issued] dire warnings of service cuts, and of physicians fleeing the province… Doctors in Canada would be wise to follow the lead of their counterparts south of the border, and help lead the discussion.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Family doctors should work where province decides, health conference told
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
Jun 09 2012
Family doctors should no longer able to work as solo practitioners nor should they be allowed to set up shop wherever they want, a conference on health reform has been told… There are up to 1,500 family physicians working as solo practitioners in Ontario, a large portion of them in the Greater Toronto Area. Most are older and have spent decades practising this way… Solo practitioners and their patients are at a disadvantage because they have access to fewer resources… They are isolated from where all the resources are and they often look after really needy patients
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Ontario government faces lawsuits over troubled Family Health Teams
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 8, 2012
The move to FHTs also has seen more than 2.1 million Ontarians who didn’t have a family doctor get one. Rolled out in five waves starting in 2005, Ontario has poured millions into the teams — $244-million in fiscal 2010-11 and $347-million in fiscal 2011-12 alone — and now has 200 FHTs across the province, serving 2.8 million patients… The auditors urged the government to strengthen the conflict-of-interest section of the agreements it signs with FHTs… Almost half the 200 FHTs, for instance, are physician-led… For the doctor-led family health teams, it means that only members of the FHOs (that is, the physicians) are voting members of the FHT board.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates, Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Premiers collaborate to tackle new heath-care assignment
Friday, June 1st, 2012
May. 30, 2012
Canada’s premiers are joining forces to reform the delivery of health-care services, in a bid to rein in ballooning costs and better meet the needs of an aging population. The initiative marks the first time the country’s provincial and territorial leaders are collaborating on a pan-Canadian health-care strategy. It comes in the wake of the federal government’s no-strings funding formula for health care, one that leaves it up to the provinces to shape social policy.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living, tax
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Dragging medicare into the 21st century
Sunday, May 27th, 2012
May. 24, 2012
Regardless of political allegiance, there is near unanimity that a universal health system is a good thing – for reasons of economics and social justice. That’s why every Western country save one has a universal system. When it comes to health care, only the United States is morally bankrupt and economically inept… The reality is that every other developed country has universal health care that is better, fairer and cheaper than ours. We are big on grand pronouncements such as, “Medicare is what defines us as Canadians.” But we are laggards on the practical side.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Health care sits top of mind as Ontario wrestles its deficit
Sunday, May 27th, 2012
May. 26, 2012
The changes to doctors’ fee schedules that have already been announced, targeted mostly at a few specialists’ groups such as ophthalmologists and radiologists, should help… But to maintain that limited growth through 2017-18, as promised, will require major structural changes that are likely to have a bigger impact on service delivery. With everything from hospital mergers and the centralization of services to stricter standards for prescriptions and referrals likely to be on the table in the years to come
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living, tax
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Why Ontario’s doctors won’t win fight on fees
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
May 12 2012
… doctors can’t complain of falling behind: payments have increased by 75 per cent since the Liberals took power in 2003. They remain the best-paid in the country… threats of another brain drain are contradicted by the quiet return of émigré doctors from the once-promised land of America… technological advances have bolstered the government’s case for fee reductions… expert opinion — and a strong all-party political consensus — is pushing to reallocate spending to long-term care and home care, freeing up acute care beds.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Deb Matthews slashes fees for OHIP services to save $338 million
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
May 07 2012
Health Minister Deb Matthews announced Monday there would be 37 changes to the OHIP fee schedule, targeting hundreds of services provided by cardiologists, radiologists and ophthalmologists. The doctors claim this will mean longer waits in emergency wards and for test results — and warn that patients could expect a harder time finding a family doctor or a specialist because of fewer physicians. “Our doctors are the best paid in Canada,” said Matthews… “Instead of another raise for doctors, we need a real wage freeze so we can invest in more home care,”
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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