Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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6.5 million Canadians lack a family doctor. The solution is already here
Tuesday, October 15th, 2024
In a report released this month, [three of Canada’s senators] suggest the following: accelerate a pathway for the many internationally trained doctors who are currently unable to practise in Canada…. Hundreds of ITPs currently compete for each residency spot available to them, a situation which is clearly untenable… Practice Ready Assessment[s] consist[s] of a 3-month assessment of a doctor’s competency to practise, assessed by licensed doctors in Canada while they see patients, usually in a rural or remote setting.
Tags: Health, immigration, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Foreign doctors won’t solve our family physician crisis. Here’s what might
Monday, October 14th, 2024
Expand and reform medical education… increase capacity and tailor programs to meet current needs, especially in family medicine… Reform selection processes to attract medical students who are committed and suited for specialties in need, particularly family medicine… Embrace community-based training… Incentivize family medicine… Integrate technology… Promote team-based approaches that maximize and effectively integrate the skills of various health professionals, improving patient care and physician satisfaction.
Tags: featured, Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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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Doctors want to practice medicine. Instead, we are buried in paperwork
Monday, September 30th, 2024
Administrative burden is a catch-all term to describe all the work a family physician does each day that does not include seeing patients… on average, a family doctor spends 19 hours per week on administrative and clerical tasks. Is it any wonder that recent reports state that medical students don’t want to be family doctors? In fact, 94 per cent of family doctors report feeling overwhelmed with this burden and as a result, some even close their practices…
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Addressing the Crisis in Access to Primary to Primary Care: A Targeted Approach
Sunday, September 29th, 2024
… a major cause for the dysfunction is the reluctance of provincial governments to undertake institutional reforms, for fear of provoking interest groups – particularly physicians’ organizations. The provinces have not made major changes to their health delivery systems since forced to do so by the deficit crises of the 1990s… The author recommends… an aggressive increase in the number of nurse practitioners working in community primary care, usually in multi-discipline clinics; and… rostering patients and expanding capitation in multi-discipline clinics.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Senate holding up Pharmacare Act
Monday, September 16th, 2024
… the Health Minister’s and the House Leader’s offices told Canadian Health Coalition representatives they expected the Senate to pass the Pharmacare Act before the summer. The Minister said he had several provinces ready to enter into agreements soon thereafter… But the Senate had different ideas… Now there are indications the Senate SOCI committee is entertaining amendments to Bill C-64… pharmaceutical and insurance corporations have lobbied furiously to derail Bill C-64, or delay it as long as possible.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Doug Ford wants to stop doctors from handing out clean needles. Here’s why they shouldn’t listen
Monday, September 16th, 2024
The government’s plans include prohibiting provincially funded community health centres with consumption services from distributing clean needles and providing safer supply of opioids and other prescriptions. The government alleges that needle distribution and safer supply threaten community safety and are ineffective ways to treat substance dependent people. The government is wrong on both counts… public health is protected by providing clean needles… and the prescribing of opioids reduces overdose-related mortality.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »