The Ontario Medical Association and Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care have reached a tentative Physician Services Agreement. So what does this mean for doctors and patients, and the Ontario health care system? In contemplating this question, I thought I might impart a recent personal experience that provides some context to consider not only the …
An Assessment Of The New Agreement On Negotiation And Representation Rights As readers know, the OMA and Government have now, subject to OMA ratification, resolved their differences over fees and money, entering into a new two year Physician Services Agreement. I will leave to others the task of assessing whether the Agreement will truly result …
Monday’s announcement by federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq that she will not interfere with the approval of generic OxyContin is just the latest development in what has become a major public health crisis. In Canada, overdose deaths involving prescription medications now vastly outnumber deaths from HIV. By some estimates, prescription drug overdoses have killed 100,000 …
I would like to start out by thanking all the fantastic health care workers. As a recovering person with diagnosed concurrent disorders – having both addictions and mental health issues – I have seen the challenges and abuse often faced by doctors, nurses, counsellors and support staff working within the healthcare system. This article is …
Last week, the Ontario Medical Association and the Ontario government announced they had reached a tentative agreement that they hope will end their current dispute. The tentative agreement, which will run until March of 2014, will affect doctors in a number of ways and also has implications for the wider health care system. In this article, …
Policy decisions on everything from childhood education to housing can have unintended consequences on the public’s health. A Healthy Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) is a decision support tool designed to identify these unintended consequences. It walks users through the steps of identifying how a program, policy or similar initiative will impact population groups in different …
The Personal Health Navigator is available to all Canadian patients. Questions about your doctor, hospital or how to navigate the health care system can be sent to AskLisa@Sunnybrook.ca The Question: I take warfarin for atrial fibrillation. Every three weeks, I go to a clinic to get my blood checked and, if needed, my warfarin dose is adjusted. …
The other night, a patient gave me a piece of his mind. Mr. Q was a middle-aged man debilitated by days of nausea, vomiting and intractable belly pain. That morning, his wife finally convinced him to get medical attention and drove him to our emergency department. On arrival, he sat in a cubicle in the …
Generic drugs may seem cheap, at least in comparison to brand name drugs. But Canadians pay more for generic drugs than people who live in many other countries. Last summer, the premiers of several provinces announced that they would attempt to take advantage of competition between generic manufacturers to drive down prices. The generic manufacturers’ …
A typical doctor working in a community hospital is not an employee of the hospital, but has been appointed to the hospital medical staff as an ‘independently contracted professional’, and is paid by the government on a fee-for-service basis. Structuring the relationship between a hospital and its doctors in this way is the historical norm …
The Personal Health Navigator is available to all Canadian patients. Questions about your doctor, hospital or how to navigate the health care system can be sent to AskLisa@Sunnybrook.ca The Question: I want to do dialysis at home but am worried. Is it safe? Is it possible? The Answer: This is the kind of question Alireza Zahirieh, head of …
Just last week I heard about a situation that went something like this: A woman had a cardiac catheterization in a Toronto hospital. A professional attended the women while she was recovering from sedation and proceeded to read her a list of things she needed to know in order to care for herself. The professional …
The number of diagnostic imaging tests performed on Canadian patients has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Although the cost of each test is small, the aggregate costs add up quickly. The costs have become sufficiently large that both doctors and the government have raised questions about whether all the tests that are being performed …
There is a major gap between public health messages, women’s intentions and actual practices when it comes to breastfeeding. I’ve experienced this first hand as a new mother. The major topic of conversation amongst new mothers tends to center around breastfeeding and ensuring that our babies’ needs are being met. Whether your baby is getting …
The Personal Health Navigator is available to all Canadian patients. Questions about your doctor, hospital or how to navigate the health care system can be sent to AskLisa@Sunnybrook.ca The Question: My father has been on a “wait and see” list for 36 hours, with an IV drip. Once they know surgery isn’t going to happen, why …
As a recent ophthalmology and retina surgery graduate, I was shocked by the dramatic unilateral healthcare cuts announced in May. This left me with a poor first impression of the relationship between the health care profession and government. Although the OMA and government are back at the bargaining table, I am concerned that the best …
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin’s bid for jurisdiction to investigate complaints about patients’ experiences at the province’s hospitals and long-term care facilities has support from a wide range of patient advocacy groups. Marin stresses that his counterparts in all the other provinces have jurisdiction to investigate these types of complaints, although the scope of their powers …
Health systems worldwide are challenged by the growing costs of health care and the increasing demand for chronic illness management within aging populations. Innovation has become central to the agendas of most health systems to overcome these challenges and achieve sustainability. A recent analysis of seven OECD comparator countries identified numerous learning opportunities for Canada. …
October is “Breast Cancer Awareness” month. Just when you thought there could not be any more pink ribbons in the world, there are. I have never liked the cutesy, little girl symbolism of a pink ribbon to represent breast cancer. I refuse to buy any product sporting a pink ribbon and I do not support …
The uproar has been furious. Literally. And I certainly understand why. But it’s not because the Ontario Medial Association (OMA) went too far, it’s because the OMA lost control of the message. For readers who aren’t aware, on Tuesday the OMA held a press conference where they outlined multiple initiatives that they hope if enacted, …