Posts Tagged ‘pharmaceutical’

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Doug Ford needs to follow the evidence on supervised consumption

Thursday, November 28th, 2024

… harm reduction doesn’t simply prevent overdoses and infectious diseases; it eases pressure on Emergency Response Services and our crowded ER’s… all residents deserve to live in peace and security… However, community safety is not a zero-sum game. It is possible to keep our neighbourhoods safe and clean while implementing comprehensive treatment services that save lives — even if it means moving those services to more appropriate locations and improving the way we deliver them.

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Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 1 Comment »


Don’t have private insurance? You’re still paying for others who do — you deserve better care

Saturday, November 23rd, 2024

Health care in Canada is universal for only two things, doctors and hospitals. For everything else, from psychology to prescription drugs, care depends on your private insurance or ability to pay… public subsidization occurs through an income tax exemption. Specifically, on an employer’s contribution to private health insurance premiums… What if instead, $4 billion of public subsidies to private insurance were used to support universal pharmacare, beyond diabetes and contraceptive care?

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Pharmacare and Access to Medicines in Canada: Is Bill C-64 a Step in the Right Direction?

Friday, November 8th, 2024

After years of change and advancement in healthcare for Canadian citizens, Bill C-64 still might fall short of providing at adequately and fairly providing pharmacare in Canada… because of the vague language of the bill and because of the unrelentless lobbying of commercial stakeholders, these first steps can very well end up even further entrenching the current inefficient, inequitable and wasteful mishmash of drug plans that has characterized Canadian drug coverage since the 1960s.

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Canada’s getting national pharmacare. Here’s what it means for you

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024

With the Liberal government’s pharmacare plan enacted earlier this month, the government only needs to sign individual deals with the provinces to realize widespread access to diabetes medication, like insulin, and a broad array of contraceptives… “informal” talks have already been ongoing… Ottawa can sign deals with all provinces by next spring… Ontario’s government, however, is still mulling over the fine print of the program.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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The Ford government gets it wrong on drugs

Wednesday, September 4th, 2024

… on what basis has the government concluded that these sites are doing more to aggravate than to mitigate the drug crisis? On what basis has it concluded that public use is more likely to fall and public safety to rise as these sites close? What, other than the political mood or the premier’s oft-stated personal distaste, led it to this decision? The answers to these questions are not apparent either in the government’s announcement or in the available evidence.

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Ontario considering expanding pharmacists’ powers to treat more common ailments

Thursday, August 1st, 2024

… the province is consulting with the industry on treating 14 more common ailments, such as a sore throat, shingles, and some sleep disorders… the government is also looking at allowing pharmacists to order and perform tests for strep throat and to administer additional vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria, pneumococcal, and shingles… [and] giving pharmacy technicians the power to administer vaccines for hepatitis, rabies, and meningitis.

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