The Ontario government recently tabled a budget which included a two year wage freeze for all public sector employees. This announcement has frustrated some Ontario nurse practitioners, many of whom have not had a wage increase for several years – despite increased responsibilities and significantly enhanced scope of practice. In Ontario, hospital-based NPs generally earn …
I’m not an expert on health care in Ontario – I still live in Alberta – but from afar the health chapter of the Drummond Report looks good. I think they got the diagnosis right! The health care system isn’t a system, there are inefficiencies, and the system needs to be reoriented. The prescription is …
Someone or something needs to control health care, set an agenda, perform long range strategic planning, monitor performance, make corrections, bring in new ideas, and eliminate old ones. That is a tall order in the context of a health care system that is perhaps our most complicated decision making environment; one that has such an …
Recently Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews made a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade in which she introduced changes to the province’s health care system. Hmmm – interesting choice of audiences. The Ontario government is preparing for an upcoming provincial budget. It is widely expected to contain drastic spending cuts as recommended by economist …
In my first post, “The Easy Lifting Has Already Been Done”, I noted some of the barriers to change in the health care system. I will write further about barriers and possible solutions. However, first I need to take one step back. That step is to address the necessity of change in how we deliver …
It was sometime before Christmas and I was headed to a meeting at Queens Park when I saw the large bus shelter ad promoting how much money Ontario’s physician’s had saved the province. I knew immediately that it must be contract negotiations time again. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not cynical at all. It’s just …
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner recently ordered Cancer Care Ontario to stop sending paper copies of screening reports containing personal health information to physicians. However, a massive amount of personal health information is mailed or faxed every day in Ontario. The implications of this order to information sharing and transfer across the health care …
For health policy wonks, 2011 ended not with a whimper, not with a bang but with a wallop. Federal Finance Minister Flaherty thumped the federal government’s 2014 Accord ‘offer’ on the table. A special kind of offer, in fact a fait accompli: there’ll be no negotiation, no debate, no to-ing and fro-ing. This is what …
In recent years, health care has embraced the concept of “evidence based” practice. We incorporate this daily in our diverse work settings. We invoke it when we mentor students. We know, for example, that rigorous control of blood sugar levels in people with diabetes reduces their risk of organ damage – and so we aim …
The challenges facing the health care system are massive and despite some occasional messages to the contrary, the overwhelming opinion is that the health care system is not sustainable. Despite the mounting chorus, internal and external, telling us that the system isn’t sustainable, surprisingly little has been done. We have been nibbling around the edges …
Have you ever wondered why ordinary people get involved in the healthcare debate? It seems that one or two voices will never achieve any change or improvement in the services Canadians receive and how they are provided. An overwhelming feeling of hopelessness and frustration kept me silent until recently, and I am an ordinary Canadian. …
A recent report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information provides information about the major drivers of health care costs in the past decade, which include growing salaries for health care workers and greater intensity of treatment. The report suggests that the aging population is not a major contributor to rising health care costs. These findings clash …
The Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) does not cover all health services that can be provided by a doctor. These “uninsured” services include telephone renewal of prescriptions, writing sick notes for work or school and transferring medical records. Doctors can offer patients the option of paying for a set of uninsured services with a single …
With the expiry of the Health Accord in 2014 looming, the debate about the role of the federal government in paying for health care is once again taking centre stage. The School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto hosted a roundtable on the future of how the federal government transfers …
Hospital accreditation is a process that assesses a hospital’s performance against a set of standards. This process is done differently across provinces and countries. In Canada, most hospitals go through an accreditation process conducted by Accreditation Canada. The accreditation process could be more transparent and provide more information to the public about the quality of …
The recent controversy about a new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) has raised questions about the role of patients and politicians in determining health research priorities. In the past, the scientific community has generally determined what research is conducted. However the public is increasingly demanding that they be involved in setting research priorities – the …
Increasing access to primary care providers, such as family doctors or nurse practitioners, has been a government priority. Better access to primary care is also associated with improved population health. Although the percentage of Ontarians with a regular primary care provider has increased in recent years, fewer than half can see their primary care provider …
In the run up to the Ontario election, the Liberal party has promised $60 million to support physician house calls. The number of doctors who make house calls has declined markedly over the past fifty years, and only a small proportion of Ontario family doctors currently provide ongoing care to patients in their homes. What …
In August 2011, a supervisor was appointed at the Niagara Health System to “restore public confidence” in the hospital. The Ontario Public Hospitals Act allows the government to appoint a supervisor to take over the administration of a hospital if it is considered in the public interest to do so. While appointing a supervisor happens …
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Ontario, and is costly to the health care system. From the 1990s into the past decade, Ontario made significant progress in reducing smoking rates. However, smoking rates are no longer declining as steeply. More aggressive action needs to be taken if Ontario wants to …