health

Wednesday March 29, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 29, 2023

Canada’s Refugee Policy Takes a Hit: The Impact of Biden-Trudeau Border Deal and OHIP Cuts

March 3, 2023

Canada has been praised for its openness policy to refugees and asylum seekers in the past, but recent developments suggest this may no longer be the case. The recent border deal between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau will see Canada officially accept 15,000 asylum-seekers from the Western hemisphere while also giving Canada the right to send back migrants who attempt to enter the country through unofficial crossings. Migrants were reportedly stunned by the new deal, which took effect immediately without notice. Migration advocates and experts warn that the amendment will drive asylum-seekers underground and could lead to increased deaths. Meanwhile, the Ford government in Ontario has ended OHIP health care coverage for undocumented migrants, making it more difficult for them to access healthcare. Critics say the changes are part of a trend of rich countries trying to ensure asylum-seekers never get to their borders. However, Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center, says there’s a sound political logic to the deal. It will alleviate pressure on the US border with its acceptance of 15,000 asylum-seekers while closing unofficial crossings, which may play well for the Liberals and the Democrats with their voters. (AI)

Trudeau to announce US-Canada asylum deal after Biden talks

Ford government cuts off medical funding for the uninsured — and a doctor finds it ‘shocking’ 

 

Saturday January 21, 2023

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) 

 

Thursday January 19, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 19, 2023

Health Canada recommends limiting alcohol to just 2 drinks per week

January 16, 2019

New alcohol guidelines recommending that Canadians limit themselves to just two drinks a week – and ideally cut alcohol altogether – have prompted intense debate over risk versus enjoyment in a country where the vast majority of adults regularly consume alcohol.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) this week called for a substantial reduction in consumption, warning that seemingly moderate drinking poses a number of serious health risks, including cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The new guidelines, funded by Health Canada, represent a dramatic shift from previous recommendations issued in 2011, when Canadians were told that low-risk consumption meant no more than 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks a week for men.

“We wanted to simply to present the evidence to the Canadian public, so they could reflect on their drinking and make informed decisions,” said Peter Butt, a professor of family medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and a member of the panel that drafted the guidelines. “It’s fundamentally based on the right to know.”

September 24, 2015

In its measurements, the CCSA considers a standard drink to be a 12oz (355ml) serving of 5%-alcohol beer, a 5oz (148ml) glass of 12%-alcohol wine or a shot glass of 40% spirits.

In the UK, the NHS recommends no more than six 6oz glasses of wine or six pints of 4% beer per week – ideally spread across three days or more. Health officials in the United States recommend no more than two drinks per day for men and only one for women.

But Canadian experts say that new research suggests three to six drinks a week should be considered moderate risk for both men and women, and seven or more drinks a week is high risk. In addition to elevated risk of colon and breast cancer, as well as heart disease and strokes, the CCSA also identified both injuries and violence as negative outcomes from drinking alcohol.

“This isn’t about prohibition. This is simply about reducing the amount one drinks,” said Butt.

The guidelines also warn that no amount of alcohol is safe when pregnant or trying to get pregnant. While abstinence during breastfeeding is the safest option, a standard drink occasionally does not significantly elevate risk.

June 26, 2009

The new guidelines were met with skepticism by some health experts.

“This type of research often marginalizes other considerations of health and wellbeing from alcohol,” said Dan Malleck, a professor of health sciences at Brock University.

“With their job as the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse and Addiction, there’s no space in there for considering there might be benefits. Their job is to find harm.”

Malleck described the guidelines as “irresponsible”, and said they risk creating “anxiety and stress” among Canadians who once saw themselves as moderate drinkers but now occupy a “high-risk” category.

“The research they’re using also ignores the enjoyment and pleasure and stress relief and collegiality associated with alcohol. None of those things are in the calculation whatsoever,” he said. “We aren’t just machines with inputs and output of chemicals or nutrition. We actually exist in a social space. And that has a significant impact on our health.”

Others, however, see the guidelines as an attempt to help Canadians better understand the realities of alcohol consumption. (The Guardian) 

 

Wednesday January 18, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2023

‘Always an upsell’: health critic Gélinas pans Ford’s OHIP plan

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas says northerners won’t benefit from Premier Doug Ford’s plan to expand the range of medical procedures performed in privately-run clinics.

May 9, 2012

On Thursday, Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the three-phase plan, beginning with surgical and diagnostic clinics in Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor performing an additional 14,000 cataract operations each year, which represents about 25 per cent of the province’s current wait list for the procedure.

Next, more private clinics will be able to offer MRI and CT imaging, as well as colonoscopies and endoscopies.

The government intends that by 2024, the third phase will see hip and knee replacements performed at for-profit clinics.

“These procedures will be non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive and, in addition to shortening wait times, will allow hospitals to focus their efforts and resources on more complex and high-risk surgeries,” the province said in a news release.

But Gélinas said the plan is a long way from the original vision of Tommy Douglas, where case care is based on needs, not your ability to pay.

“It’s already happening,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the cataract surgery, you have your cataract surgery done in the hospital. Nobody pays anything. But you have the same ophthalmologist, same surgeon doing the same procedures in their private clinic, and there is almost always an upsell.”

November 19, 2020

“Another $150.00 to remeasure the eye, $400.00 to use a lens that they prefer, $1000 for this and that and the other thing,” Gélinas said. 

Gélinas estimates that most private facilities are located in southern Ontario, while only a handful have set up shop in the north.

Once the province gives cities in the north the green light to open more private clinics, patients who choose to use their services can expect to be pushed to spend more money, Gélinas said.

“They find ways to make you pay and it’s a barrier to care,” Gélinas said. The province’s motivation in permitting the clinics, Gélinas said, is for a handful of providers to make money.

“There is a lot of money in healthcare,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the budget, $76 billion in Ontario from taxpayers’ money goes toward healthcare.”

April 1, 2021

“A lot of people are interested in health care not because they want to help people, because they want to make money,” she said. “There is a lot of money to be made off the back of sick people and it attracts a lot of investors.”

But Dr. Stephen Cooper, District 9 chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), said doctors have been expecting this move from the province for awhile, and for the most part, are welcoming the plan.

“Sudbury and the entire northeast are struggling with managing wait lists, particularly in some of the surgical procedures,” Cooper said. “So when it comes our way, I think it’ll be of great benefit.”

Cooper said the system, at its best, would allow private clinics to specialize, and help ease some of the congestion in hospitals. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday January 17, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 17, 2023

Ontario expanding number and range of surgeries offered at for-profit clinics

Ontario is significantly expanding the number and range of medical procedures performed in privately run clinics as the province deals with a surgical backlog made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

November 9, 2022

The change will be introduced over three phases. The first will see surgical and diagnostic clinics in Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor perform an additional 14,000 cataract operations each year, representing about 25 per cent of the province’s current wait list for the procedure.

Next, more private clinics will be able to offer MRI and CT imaging, as well as colonoscopies and endoscopies.

“These procedures will be non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive and, in addition to shortening wait times, will allow hospitals to focus their efforts and resources on more complex and high-risk surgeries,” the province said in a news release.

The government intends that by 2024, the third phase will see hip and knee replacements performed at for-profit clinics.

The impending changes were outlined by Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones at a news conference Monday.

December 1, 2021

Ford and Jones said several times the care will be covered by OHIP, and Ford stressed patients will “never use their credit cards” at the clinics. He didn’t directly answer a reporter’s question about whether or not clinics would be allowed to upsell patients on associated elements of care.

While the changes are needed because of the province’s long surgery wait lists, Ford said, they will be kept in place permanently even after the backlog is cleared.

There are currently about 900 privately operated surgical and diagnostic clinics open in Ontario, Jones added. The province plans to approve licences for additional clinics in the future, she said.

Legislation set to be introduced in February would “strengthen oversight” of private health facilities, the news release said, and the province will continue to update its standards for how they deliver care.

Various health-care professionals told CBC Toronto last week they are concerned that the plan would drain resources from publicly funded hospitals and benefit the owners of private-sector clinics without improving patient care.

May 13, 2021

Jones said the changes will not affect staffing levels at hospitals in the province, while Ford lamented “endless debates” about who should deliver health care.

“The way I can describe it, you have a dam, you have a log jam, are you going to just keep pouring the water up against the logs?” Ford said.

“Or are you going to reroute some of the water and take the pressure off the dam? You see what happens when the dam has too much water, it breaks.”

Speaking to reporters, presumptive NDP Leader Marit Stiles said MPPs should be called back to the legislature immediately so the details of the plan can be debated. Stiles accused Ford of manufacturing a staffing crisis in hospitals via his government’s wage restraint law and “following the privatization playbook to a tee.”

“Make no mistake, Doug Ford is misleading you when he says that funding surgeries in private, for-profit clinics won’t have an impact on Ontarians,” Stiles said at Queen’s Park, adding believes the changes mark early steps toward a two-tiered health-care system in the province. (CBC)