doctors – mackaycartoons

Saturday January 21, 2023

January 21, 2023 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 21, 2023

Ontario is Hiring

August 3, 2022

Buried in the mountain of news and commentary this week around the province’s decision to allow more private sector health service delivery was another announcement by Doug Ford.

He said the province will make regulatory changes to ensure health-care workers from other provinces can overcome any bureaucratic or governance hurdles that might slow down their working in Ontario.

That makes sense, as far as it goes. There is no sound reason for different rules from one province to the next. Anything that reduces interprovincial inequity makes sense. But beyond that, this is more smoke and mirrors than meaningful improvement.

May 13, 2021

Is there a horde of medical workers — especially nurses — dissatisfied with their jobs in other provinces, yearning for Ontario? A province that has a law capping nursing salary increases at one per cent when inflation is more than six per cent? Where a court has found that law unconstitutional but the government is appealing the court’s ruling? Where other front-line jobs like police and fire are exempt from the same cap?

The health-care worker shortage is national, and even international. Any meaningful steps addressing it are welcome, but this is largely window dressing. (The Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Wednesday December 9, 2020

December 16, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 9, 2020

Fauci Calls Coronavirus Vaccine a Game Changer, Decries Misinformation

Anthony Fauci said a vaccine could diminish coronavirus as successfully as the polio vaccine did for polio, enabling workers to return to offices and restaurants in the second half of 2021.

December 1, 2020

But hurdles exist, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert said. They include people’s hesitancy to get vaccinated, a successful and swift vaccination program, and getting through a rise in Covid-19 cases that is now being fueled in part by misinformation about the virus, Dr. Fauci said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit on Tuesday.

“There are a substantial proportion of people who do think this is not real, that it’s fake news, or it’s a hoax. This is extraordinary. I’ve never seen this before,” he said. Dr. Fauci added that he will convey the following to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration: “We have all got to be on the same page telling the American public we have to pull together. That, to me, is the most important thing.”

Dr. Fauci and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus-response coordinator, who also spoke Tuesday at the summit, both reiterated their calls for people to adopt public-health measures to combat the spread of the virus.

August 7, 2020

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said the virus infected people in the U.S. in mid-December 2019, a few weeks before it was officially identified in China and about a month earlier than public-health authorities found the first U.S. case. It has since caused almost 15 million diagnosed cases and more than 283,000 deaths. Cases have surged since the fall, with more than 2,000 daily deaths being reported. It is too early to know whether the Thanksgiving holiday will add an additional spurt of cases.

The death toll could surpass 430,000 by March 1, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Trump administration is aiming to have enough coronavirus vaccine for everyone in the U.S. who wants to take it by the second quarter of 2021.

“We have to go head-to-head with the misunderstandings people have with this virus,” said Dr. Birx, who added that she doesn’t know what role she will have in the president-elect’s administration but will remain in federal government.

Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was upbeat about the promise of a vaccine to bring coronavirus to heel.

June 17, 2020

Health-care workers and people in nursing homes and extended-care facilities will get the vaccine first, he said, followed by various prioritization levels that are likely to include seniors, people with underlying health conditions and workers with critical jobs, such as teachers.

Dr. Birx also said vaccines need to be prioritized for communities of color that have been hit hard by Covid-19.

Younger people and people with no underlying conditions will likely be able to get the vaccine by the end of March or beginning of April if the vaccination program runs efficiently and the majority of people take the vaccine, Dr. Fauci said. With about 75% of the public inoculated, there should be low levels of circulating virus and a return to workplaces.

The stringency of public-health measures will gradually diminish, he said, and chief executives should use surveillance testing once workers return to quickly identify any potential outbreaks.

“I don’t think we’re going to eradicate [Covid-19] the way we did with smallpox, but I think we can do what we did with polio,” Dr. Fauci said. (Wall Street Journal)

Wednesday December 21, 2016

December 20, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 21, 2016

Ottawa, provinces fail to reach a deal on health spending

Ottawa and the provinces have failed to reach a deal on health-care funding, despite a $11.5-billion pledge by the federal government to boost targeted spending on home care and mental health.

The federal government has now taken that offer off the table, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Monday, and the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) spending increase will revert to 3 per cent a year as of April 1, 2017.

Morneau had told the provinces he was willing to grow that key federal transfer by 3.5 per cent each year over the next five years — at a value of roughly $20 billion — but the provinces balked.

“We came to the provinces with a significant offer of funds … We’re disappointed we weren’t successful,” Morneau told reporters.

Jane Philpott, Canada’s health minister, said the federal government’s money could have made a real difference in the lives of many Canadians.

“I woke up this morning feeling very hopeful, thinking about half a million kids that are waiting for care for mental health services and hoping to be able to give them good news today,” she said.

“We’re disappointed that the provinces and territories did not feel like they could accept this offer and that they couldn’t find ways to use these resources immediately, to be able to get care out to Canadians.”

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said while the provinces rejected the federal funding plan, it was Morneau who was responsible for ending the meeting early.

“There was an urgency to close the meeting off. We’re here, we desire an agreement, we need to come to a conclusion. Why have anybody attend if there’s nothing to negotiate or discuss?” Sousa said, adding Ottawa wasn’t willing to listen to evidence that its proposed funding plan would imperil the country’s health-care system. (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday May 9, 2012

May 9, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday May 9, 2012

Lower fees forced on Ontario doctors

Sending a signal that will reverberate throughout Ontario’s broader public sector, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals have broken with their conciliatory past by forcing a tough new deal onto Ontario’s doctors.

Less than two weeks after negotiations with the Ontario Medical Association fell apart, and despite requests by the OMA to call in a conciliator, Health Minister Deb Matthews announced Monday that a package of cuts to doctors’ fees will be unilaterally imposed through regulations, retroactive to April 1.

The abrupt manner in which the cuts were unveiled, amid claims by the OMA that Ms. Matthews has misrepresented discussions at the bargaining table, sets an aggressive tone for other negotiations – including with the province’s teachers. And it epitomized the shifting focus of a government once known for its big-spending ways.

The 37 fee-schedule changes announced Monday focus heavily (although not exclusively) on a relatively small number of high-paid specialists – mostly radiologists, ophthalmologists and cardiologists – and by the Liberals’ estimate will save $338-million in 2012-13 and $440-million in 2013-14. But sources say there are more broad-based cuts to come, to get the rest of the way to a two-year freeze in doctors’ total pay envelope.

Still on the table is the elimination of a “retention bonus,” which the Liberals had brought in to dissuade doctors from leaving the province. That benefit currently peaks at $5,000 every three years for doctors who have practised at least three decades.

The government also wants to revive so-called clawbacks of doctors’ fees once they exceed a level at which their ratio to overhead costs becomes skewed. (Source: Globe & Mail)