Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Health-care unions call Ontario’s one-time $5K offer to nurses ‘demoralizing’
Tuesday, March 8th, 2022
The healthcare unions, which represent a combined 220,000 workers across Ontario, said in their letter that the shortage “requires urgent action to better respect, protect, and pay all healthcare workers.” They say that should begin with repealing Bill 124. That legislation was introduced in 2019, and capped annual salary increases for many public sector employees, including nurses, at an average of one per cent annually for three years.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pensions, women
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Why Canada hasn’t been getting the new antibiotics we need to fight drug-resistant ‘superbugs’
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022
… due to the cost of developing these drugs and their susceptibility to eventual resistance, many pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotic development… newer antibiotics are used only as a last resort, reducing the volume of sales and return on investment for companies that are still willing to bear the costs of development… [and] manufacturers still producing antibiotics tend to shy away from the Canadian market due to Canada’s small population, financial barriers in our publicly funded system and burdensome regulatory processes.
Tags: Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
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COVID-19 has highlighted — not caused — current health care problems in Canada
Tuesday, March 1st, 2022
… Canada is now 51st in the world in doctors per population. Our world ranking in the ’70s had varied between fourth and eighth… Despite our limiting the supply of care, total health spending in Canada was estimated by the Canadian Institute for Health Information to be $308 billion in 2021 ($8,019 per Canadian) representing 12.7 per cent of Canada’s GDP. This ranks among the highest in the world.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Public health care advocates support targeted federal spending boosts for provinces
Friday, February 4th, 2022
Public health advocates are calling for federal health care dollars for the provinces and territories to come with strings attached, countering the demands for more unconditional federal dollars from provincial and territorial leaders… “The simple reality is, handing out blank cheques to Conservative premiers won’t fix nursing shortages, repair long-term care, provide better mental health services or implement pharmacare”
Tags: budget, featured, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
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‘Alternative budget’ tackles social and ecological determinants of health
Thursday, February 3rd, 2022
the AFB lays out a plan to ensure health equity and well-being for all by, among other things: Connecting the dots between the social and ecological determinants of health—things like income, working conditions, a clean environment—and their impact on health outcomes… Expanding the public health care system to include pharmacare, a national mental health program, a national dental care plan, and 10 paid sick days. Developing national standards for virtual care…
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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NUPGE report warns against privatization through virtual health care
Wednesday, January 26th, 2022
… the increase in ‘virtual’ health care during the pandemic is creating more private, for-profit delivery of health services…. “However, any for-profit virtual clinic that continues to bill users directly, or through private insurance plans, appears to be at odds with the preamble of the Canada Health Act, which calls for ‘continued access to quality health care without financial or other barriers.’”
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Lower drug prices are a priority for Canadians, but not for the federal government
Tuesday, January 25th, 2022
While the federal government has been bowing to the pharmaceutical industry, the amount that Canadians spend on medicines has continued to rise. In 2020, Canadians spent an estimated $32.7 billion, 4.3 per cent more than the previous year. Meanwhile, more than two-in-five Canadians are concerned about their ability to afford prescription drugs in 10 years.
Tags: Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
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Digital Health Tools Must Remain a Core Part of Canada’s Post-pandemic Health Care Delivery System
Wednesday, January 19th, 2022
Doctors couldn’t access patient records, some systems were only available in facilities that were themselves not physically accessible, large data systems didn’t work, telemedicine networks didn’t scale. The health-care system itself hadn’t adequately planned for a pandemic! This broken system must end now… We can start with three: labs, drugs, and patient record summaries.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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What do we want our health-care system to do, and how much are we willing to pay?
Wednesday, January 12th, 2022
In late 2019, the Ontario Hospital Association published a report touting the sector’s history of efficiency while warning that the efficiencies had come at a cost. It noted that, if Ontario funded its hospital system just to the level of the Canadian average, that would cost another $4 billion annually. But almost all Canadian provinces have relatively few beds per capita compared with other wealthy countries…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected abortion care in Canada
Thursday, January 6th, 2022
Pandemic-related travel restrictions and facility closures initially jeopardized access to abortion care. However, the pandemic has also become a catalyst for more accessible ways to deliver abortion care, such as providing medical abortions, which are drug-induced rather than surgical, via telemedicine… Research shows that telemedicine abortion care is safe, and enabled people to seek care despite pandemic-related restrictions and personal concerns.
Tags: Health, ideology, participation, rights, women
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »