In our family medicine practice, we regularly ask patients to give us feedback on how we’re doing. They tell us, over and over, that one of the things they like best about our practice is the teamwork – how much they love their doctor but also their social worker, or nurse, or dietitian. And how …
I don’t remember much about my Grandma, but I do remember how she died. It was one of those perfectly tranquil winter nights in January of 2009. My family was at our home finishing dinner when Leisureworld, her long-term care (LTC) facility, called to inform us that she had a fever and low oxygen levels. …
According to statistics from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, at least 20% of people with a mental illness also have a substance use problem. To Peter Selby, chief of the addictions program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, this number is very conservative. Laura Calhoun, provincial medical director of addiction and mental …
Canadian media coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has almost exclusively focused on the effects the deal would have on the economy, especially the dairy industry and auto sector. The implications for health and health care have hardly received any media attention in Canada. We feel this is a grave oversight. After all, the …
Doctors who solely provide methadone therapy to treat addiction to narcotics say they’re facing reductions of around 25% to their income, as a result of cuts to the fees for urine tests announced this month by the Ministry of Health. Some addictions doctors and public health experts across the province are sounding alarm that this cut could …
Across Canada, governments, medical schools and health providing organizations continue to struggle with one of the most difficult questions in health care: How many doctors in each area of medicine do we train today to meet tomorrow’s health care needs? In Ontario, concern of an oversupply of doctors in some specialties led the government to …
When patients enter a typical hospital, they sense that their needs don’t come first. Nobody seems to listen to them. Nobody seems to care how long they have to wait, or what will happen to them once they are transferred to another service. At times, members of the care team seem to work at cross-purposes. …
In 2009, Donna Schmidt died of lung cancer. By the time she noticed symptoms and was diagnosed, the cancer had spread from her lung to her spine, liver, breast, bone and brain. She wrote a blog chronicling her last few months in treatment, signing her last post off with, “Thanks to all for everything you have …
The phenomenon is not exactly marginal: according to a recently released government report, one in every three workers in Canada is assisting a chronically disabled person — many of them seniors — with transportation, household maintenance or day-to-day tasks. The 6.1 million employed workers who are providing such care, free of charge, to a family member or friend …
