health

Friday August 31, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 31, 2018

Change your stance on overdose prevention sites, health groups urge Ford

More than 100 health groups plan to send an open letter to Premier Doug Ford on Thursday, urging him to reconsider his Progressive Conservative government’s position on overdose prevention sites.

The letter — signed by 120 organizations including the Canadian AIDS Society and the Canadian Medical Association — urged Ford “to heed the recommendations of experts in public health, front-line clinicians, harm reduction staff, and people with lived experience of drug use.”

“Rather than impeding access to life-saving health services, we urge you to work with community organizations and other health services providers to ensure greater, equitable access to supervised consumption sites and overdose prevention sites for the people of Ontario.”

Since coming into power, Ford’s conservative government has put several approved sites on pause — including one in Toronto — while the government studies the issue.

“Minister Elliott is undertaking an evidence-based review, listening to experts, community leaders, community members and individuals who have lived through addiction to ensure that any continuation of drug injection sites introduce people into rehabilitation and ensure those struggling with addiction get the help they need,” a spokesperson for Elliott said in a statement to CBC Toronto.

“All of these voices will inform the review and recommendation. In the interim, the ministry has indicated that no new sites should open to the public. We expect this review to conclude in short order and will be making a recommendation on how to proceed.”

The organizations claim in the letter that the delays and closures of the sites could mean “more preventable overdose deaths and new infections of HIV, Hepatitis C and other illnesses.” (Source: CBC News) 

 

Thursday July 26, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 26, 2018

National pharmacare ‘blueprint’ will be unveiled next spring

With more than 100 different public drug plans available across Canada, including Ontario’s recently scaled-back OHIP+, one challenge for a countrywide pharmacare program will be finding agreement on which one will work best, says Eric Hoskins.

Hoskins, the former Ontario health minister who helped usher in OHIP+ and is now in charge of developing a national plan, spoke to Canada’s premiers on Friday about the issue, the same day his advisory council launched wider public consultations online.

“There’s tremendous diversity” out there, he said, noting there are also more than 100,000 private drug plans in the country. A national pharmacare program will offer “the ability to have consistency across the country, so that a child in Ontario can expect to receive the same access to prescribed medications as a child in New Brunswick or in British Columbia or in the Northwest Territories,” he told reporters after the breakfast meeting at the picturesque Algonquin Resort.

“Changes are being made almost every day at the provincial and territorial level … (as they) try to improve access. We are trying to build consensus … so your access isn’t dependent on your postal code.”

Hoskins was joined by Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. Eight of 13 premiers attended the Friday morning session; Doug Ford was not among them.

Hoskins said premiers who didn’t make it sent senior staff, and noted that he just last week met with Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The big question premiers have is about a national pharmacare program is how much it will cost and the cost-sharing arrangement, both of which are still being worked out, he said.

Hoskins said a “blueprint” with full details on the model and pricing will be ready next spring.

Billions of dollars are wasted each year given the competing plans, he said, and a federal plan would see lower costs through efficiencies like bulk purchasing.

Currently, Canada spends the most per capita on prescriptions after Switzerland and the U.S. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Tuesday March 6, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 6, 2018

Feds downplay a universal pharmacare program

The federal government is reining in expectations for a new national pharmacare plan, saying it will be “fiscally responsible” in moving forward on a program to only fill existing gaps in drug coverage.

Tuesday’s budget revealed the government’s ambition to make national pharmacare a reality with the creation of an advisory council led by Dr. Eric Hoskins, who resigned his post as Ontario’s health minister to take on the new role.

The government’s goal is to ensure “all Canadians have access to pharmaceuticals,” federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday.

But as he launched efforts to publicize budget initiatives, Morneau sought to dial down expectations that the potential pharmacare program would completely replace existing public and private drug plans.

He even took pains to stress that the government is considering a “strategy,” not a “plan.”

“We recognize that we need a strategy to deal with the fact that not everyone has access and we do it in a way that is responsible, that deals with the gaps, that doesn’t throw out the system that we currently have,” Morneau said during a morning event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada.

“There are parts of the system that are working well. There are parts of the system that really aren’t working,” Morneau said, adding that about 1 million Canadians can’t afford the prescription drugs they need.

In the Commons, NDP MP Guy Caron accused the Liberals of foot-dragging, saying no further study of the idea is needed. “The time for universal pharmacare is now,” Caron said. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Friday December 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 15, 2017

Overcrowded Ontario hospitals ‘on the brink,’ province warned

Overcrowding at Ontario hospitals has become so serious that the sector is “on the brink” of a “crisis,” warns its umbrella organization, using uncharacteristically alarming language.

Leaders from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) plan to go to Queen’s Park to plead their case for more funding on Thursday. They are seeking a 4.55 per cent increase in operating funding for 2018-19, according to their prebudget submission, an advanced copy of which has been obtained by the Star.

That amounts to an extra $815 million and would bring the sector’s total operating allocation for the next fiscal year to about $18.8 billion.

The organization’s submission to the province’s finance committee is titled “A Sector on the Brink: The Case for a Significant investment in Ontario’s Hospitals.” It states that patient occupancy at about half of the province’s 143 hospital corporations exceeded 100 per cent this past summer, normally a slower time of year for the sector. Occupancy at some hospitals was as high as 140 per cent while the international standard for safe occupancy is 85 per cent.

A section of the seven-page submission highlights the “warning signs of an imminent capacity crisis.” Among them: growing wait times, higher emergency department volumes, and infrastructure and equipment that is “run down, at the end of their life, or outdated.”

States the document: “Emergency departments, for example, are a critical barometer for how the health care system is functioning — and the warning alarm is sounding loudly.”

When wait times for the month of September are compared for the last seven years, they hit their highest level this year for patients admitted to hospitals through emergency departments. Ten per cent of patients waited about 32 hours before being moved to in-patient beds. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Wednesday September 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 27, 2017

U.S. VP Pence blasts ‘failings’ of Canadian health system

The vice-president of the United States has some less-than-complimentary words for Canada’s health-care system, which he accuses of certain “failings.”

Mike Pence made the remarks in an interview last week with Alaska radio station KFQD.

He was being asked about the Republican health legislation struggling to get through Congress.

Republicans appear to be wrestling to get a bill that would repeal Obamacare through the legislature before a procedural deadline later this month — and the effort is in deep trouble.

Pence warned that if the legislative effort collapses, the U.S. will be on a course for something similar to Canada.

That’s because the Democratic party is starting to rally to an unprecedented degree around the idea of single-payer health care as a long-term solution to the U.S.’s endless health debates.

“We have a clear choice here,” Pence said.

“You know, somewhere in between where I’m sitting in Washington, D.C., and (you) Alaska, is a place called Canada. I probably don’t need to tell the people Alaska about the failings of national socialized health care because it’s right in our neighbour and you see the results every day.

“Look, we’ve got a choice: It’s between big government, Washington, D.C., solutions that ultimately, I believe, will collapse into single-payer health care — or whether or not we’re going to repeal the (Obamacare) individual mandate.”

Canada’s health system is known to suffer from long wait times, especially for elective procedures. On the other hand, Canadians not only have longer life expectancies, but also spend far less on health care than Americans according to World Bank data.

The Trump administration has just received a fresh round of bad news about its health-reform effort: After John McCain, Susan Collins became the latest senator Monday to say she opposes the Obamacare repeal bill, almost certainly dooming it. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)