Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

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No more studies are needed to fix long-term care. We already know the answers

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020

… salaries of all staff in long-term-care facilities should be reviewed. It is imperative that staff particularly personal support workers, health aides, cleaners and food preparation staff be paid adequately. They must not be forced to work in more than one facility in order to earn a decent wage. They are providing care to our vulnerable Canadians. They have a right to expect that we show that we value the work they do by ensuring a good wage.

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Canada’s soldiers have provided a wake-up call for our long-term care system

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

Our inaction, founded in deep societal ageism and persistent under-funding, cumulatively sowed the seeds of the tragedy we have been witnessing. Canada currently spends, on average, 30 per cent less of its gross domestic product on long-term care than the other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and prioritizes its limited funds on warehousing older adults rather than helping them stay in their own homes.

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Counterpoint: Protect our domestic supply by shutting down the paid-plasma industry

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020

The fact that the federal government gave blood brokers licenses to export plasma out of cash-strapped New Brunswick and Saskatchewan has been nothing less of an embarrassing policy blunder — one that was based on the fundamental lie: that blood brokers would contribute to our national blood supply. They do not. The fact is that the private paid-plasma model is being systematically abandoned throughout the world.

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The case for putting seniors’ care under the Canada Health Act

Sunday, May 10th, 2020

One of the most critical undertakings by governments across the country over the past five to 10 years has been reining in runaway health care budgets. And most governments have been successful in doing so. Adding long-term care to health budgets would be a serious blow to those efforts. Then again, maybe Canadians can agree that this is something that needs to be financed… “It would be the first big expansion of our medicare system that has happened in decades…”

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For-profit nursing homes have four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes, Star analysis finds

Saturday, May 9th, 2020

A resident in a for-profit home has been about 60 per cent more likely to catch COVID-19 and 45 per cent more likely to die than a resident in a non-profit home. A for-profit resident has also been about four times more likely to catch COVID-19 and four times more likely to die than a resident in a municipally run home… Overall, for-profit homes make up less than 60 per cent of long-term-care homes in the province, but they account for 16 of the 20 worst outbreaks.

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Completing the promise of Medicare

Sunday, May 3rd, 2020

Because of COVID-19, millions more have now lost their jobs thereby losing access to private drug insurance programmes. If Canada already had universal Pharmacare, Canadians would be far better off in this current crisis… This begs the question of who is advocating for a national universal Pharmacare program within the current Liberal government… A coalition of the willing in Parliament, followed by a coalition of the willing among the provinces and territories that will eventually come to include them all.

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Crisis in long-term care homes exposes the need for a new federal-provincial health accord

Thursday, April 30th, 2020

Ottawa’s share of public-health care funding has fallen to 23 per cent from 50 per cent since the creation of medicare in 1966… The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the holes in the model… the Trudeau government has consistently directed a deaf ear to provincial demands for a new health care funding agreement that tackles the country’s demographic elephant in the room. It has touted plans for a national pharmacare program, though it has taken no concrete step in that direction.

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Virtual care is booming amid COVID-19

Thursday, April 30th, 2020

… digital healthcare had been on the rise for a while. Infoway’s 2019 survey showed that “50 per cent of Canadians now report they can access at least one digital health service online, such as viewing their health information, making an appointment, or consulting with a health care provider.”“The way we’ve been practicing medicine for the last 100 years is changing,” says Tytus. “The days of brick and mortar physical medicine are going to be less and less important.”

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Break the cycle of neglect and panic in public health

Saturday, April 25th, 2020

As far back as 2006, in the wake of SARS, Ottawa set out a pandemic preparedness plan that should have made this country as ready as any for a threat like COVID-19… Ottawa, it turns out, has been cutting funding for management of its stocks of personal protective equipment like medical masks and gowns, known as the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile… But at a time when pandemics seemed like distant threats, no one cared much about stocks of PPE gathering dust in warehouses.

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Ontario Delivers Action Plan to Increase Protection for Vulnerable People and Those Who Care for Them

Friday, April 24th, 2020

“The action plan we are delivering today lays out a set of interventions, tailored by sector, to enable prevention and infection control, while maintaining service continuity for the benefit of our vulnerable clients and staff… “The COVID-19 Action Plan for Vulnerable People focuses on three specific areas: Enhanced Screening and Reduced Exposure to Prevent Spread… Infection Control: Managing Outbreaks and Limiting Spread… Sustaining Staffing and Managing Staff Shortages

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