In 2010, after a regional needs assessment for medical imaging, the Pembroke Regional Hospital was approved by its Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to purchase a new MRI scanner. This new machine will allow the city and neighbouring region’s residents to be scanned locally, instead of having to drive as much as 3 hours each way …
Can’t you do something, Judge? This was the question I was asked in Drug Treatment Court last week. Unfortunately, my answer was “I tried. But I can’t seem to get these doctors to change!” The issue was doctors charging their patients for one line notes stating they had been ill and had been seen in …
“Almost all LGBTQ people going into shelters have a fear of them, because it isn’t a matter of if it’s dangerous, but just how dangerous it will be. It is horrible to live in that fear everyday. ” – Mouse, 23 years old Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, and 2-Spirit (LGBTQ2) youth are overrepresented …
Should everyone have access to health care in a language they can understand? This is not a new question. In 2001, Health Canada released a report entitled ‘Language Barriers in Access to Health Care,’ calling for further research, including an exploration of the feasibility and cost of providing interpretation throughout the health care system. Since …
“96 vehicles involved in collision after ‘wall of snow’ hits Highway 400” “Highway 17 Crash Leaves Five Men Dead” “Huge multi-vehicle pile-up injures 100 people near Edmonton.” Every winter, we’re snowed under by headlines like these, on stories of car crashes that seem as inevitable as the season. But it’s not just Old Man Winter …
The federal government recently announced the Chief Public Health Officer – the physician at the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada – should no longer set the agency’s own budget, leaving this task to a soon-to-be appointed administrator. While the risks and benefits of this approach continue to be debated, a widely cited …
What you need to know about the federal government’s reversal of the refugee health cuts After significant public opposition and efforts from the health sector, the federal government has finally backtracked on many of their cuts to the refugee health program brought about in 2012. The drastic changes to the Interim Federal Health program cut off …
Hymns, protests, and arrests – that’s what happened when the Fort Erie, Ont. community rallied against a planned conversion of their local hospital’s emergency room to an urgent-care centre. It didn’t work, and in 2009, it seemed their fears were realized when a teenager died after she was in a car crash and had to be …
Shalimar Novak is sick of paying for parking. The social worker has been to Toronto’s Mount Sinai once or twice a week recently for appointments related to her pregnancy, and paid about $15 every time. “It definitely adds up,” she says. “And when you have a kid coming, you’re thinking in diaper dollars. It would be nice …
Canada spends a significant proportion of its budget on health care, while achieving average population health outcomes compared with other OECD countries. It is difficult to achieve coordinated and comprehensive care, due in part to the strain of a dependence on acute care services, accounting for nearly 30% of total health care costs. An aging …
When Nan Normand’s husband had quintuple bypass surgery, it cost them $1,500. It wasn’t the operation that was pricey, but the travel. The couple went from Kenora, a small city near the Ontario-Manitoba border, to Hamilton for the surgery. The trek included flights and a multiple-night stay. Normand was unlucky: Manitoba had temporarily stopped accepting most Ontario heart patients, …
June 16th, 2014 will mark the 3rd National Day of Action to Stop Cuts to Refugee Health Care in Canada. Concerned members of the Canadian public and healthcare providers across the country will again join forces to protest the changes that were made to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) in 2012. The IFHP was …
For the other side of the debate, read Monika Dutt’s Medical tourism is bad business for Canadian hospitals In recent weeks a few people have written about international patients in Canadian hospitals, “medical tourism” and the “slippery slope” that the writers all seem to believe will inevitably lead to two-tiered medicine. We are responsible for the …
For the other side of this debate, see Marnie Escaff & Nizar Mahomed’s Caring for international patients improves care for Canadians Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto has recently been in the news for its new method of revenue generation: offering care to wealthy foreign patients – aka “medical tourists” – who are able to pay out-of-pocket for …
In January, Ontario’s Liberal government approved legislation that would increase the minimum wage by 75 cents to $11/hour. And in March, Saskatchewan followed by increasing theirs by 20 cents to $10.20/hour. While this has ramifications for labor and the economy, it also impacts the patients in our healthcare system. This minimum wage rise came right …
It is no secret that Canada suffers from an inequitable distribution of health professionals. A 2012 report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information revealed that 18% of Canadians live in rural and remote areas, yet only 8% of doctors live in these regions. The lack of access to medical services in rural communities contributes …
“I’d do whatever I had to do to stay warm” recalls David, who was homeless on Toronto’s streets from 2000 to 2003. David said he spent the winter nights in emergency shelters, and bitter cold days in bank ATM lobbies or riding around on public transit. “Survival was tough” he says, describing everyday life on …
People with end-stage kidney disease have two treatment options: dialysis or transplantation. Dialysis is the process of removing waste and excess water from the blood, by hooking up to a machine that mimics the function of the kidney. Transplantation, however, is the optimal treatment for end-stage kidney disease, because it reduces a patient’s risk of …
Months before my life was upended, a doctor friend tried to explain my forthcoming role in terms I’d understand. “Imagine being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “You’re in charge of a single patient, but she is needy as hell.” Medical training prepared me for motherhood in some ways …
The first time I met Raj, I remember feeling completely helpless in what to offer him. A middle-aged South Asian man with a wife and two kids, Raj had moved to Canada looking for a better life 7 years ago. He came to the clinic looking for help, but what ailed him was more complicated …