Health Infrastructure

Access to virtual care highlights urban/rural divide

The move to virtual care is leaving some communities behind. For rural Canadians, especially those in remote and Indigenous communities, there are obstacles to seeing a doctor both in person and online.

Why would anyone want to be a family doctor?

Let’s face it – fewer and fewer medical graduates want to be family doctors. But why? Finances, respect in the field and the challenges of family medicine could all play a part.

A plea from a family medicine resident: We must recognize the changing nature of primary care to prevent an exodus of doctors

The pandemic and climate crisis have put extra strain on the already evolving primary care system and worsened the B.C. family-doctor shortage. But the current structure of family medicine has not adapted.

The digital revolution is upon us; how can e-prescribing help alleviate the click burden?

As we continue returning to a semblance of normalcy, it’s important we don’t lose the progress that we’ve made in safe and effective virtual care. e-Prescribing tools should continue to be a part of safer and more efficient medication management.

Episode 36 – Making Hospitals Safer

Taking action

Our health-care system is very energy intensive and produces large volumes of solid waste and toxic waste. But this is, in fact, counter to our ethical duty to do no harm, which must include not harming the environment and the health of people and communities.

Privatization is not the answer. Solutions for our ailing health-care system are hiding in plain sight

Canada is now at a crossroads. We can either strengthen or surrender one of our greatest assets – our universal, publicly funded health-care system.

‘Transformation’ in health care depends on leaders’ people skills

The true challenge of transformation is the need for leaders to see it not as simply a cumulation of changes, reforms or innovations but as a process of collective people change, regardless of the role one plays in health care.

‘Chipping away at barriers’: Nurse practitioners filling primary-care gap

Nurse practitioners are steadily solidifying their place in primary care. However, with 5 million Canadians without a primary care provider, experts say there's still more untapped potential for nurse practitioners to improve access and quality of care.

Two years into the pandemic, social workers are in critical demand

The first week of March each year marks Social Work Week. Now more than ever, social workers are needed to enable and accelerate access to mental health support within the health-care system and across many other settings.

The essential role of spiritual care in long-term care

In 2020, Ontario's LTC lockdown policies led to the elimination of religious, recreational, therapeutic and social activities for residents, resulting in a spiritual health crisis in LTC homes. As a front-line occupational therapist, I witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of the removal of spiritual care.

College must act to ensure equitable health-care outcomes for women, marginalized communities

Differences in surgical outcomes between men and women may be part of a larger gendered public health crisis.

‘Lives are at stake’: Burnout, staff shortages raise spectre of harmful events in hospital

The combined pandemic toll of a nursing shortage, an exhausted and increasingly inexperienced hospital workforce and a lack of hospital presence for family and friend patient advocates may be a precursor to increased risk of harm while in hospital.

‘I do not want to be spat on, punched or kicked’: Exodus of emergency physicians accelerating

As anti-vaxx protests continue in front of hospitals across Canada, emergency physicians are saying enough is enough and leaving their profession behind.

Emergency departments at a ‘tipping point’

Emergency departments are in the “last stage of system failure.” Experts are calling for Canada to rethink how we use the departments to fill growing gaps in non-emergency care.

‘The well is starting to run dry’: Emergency department physicians speak out

Representatives of Toronto Women in Emergency Medicine, a group of emergency physicians working in hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area, were asked to reflect on their experiences of the most recent wave and what health-care systems can do to survive the next one.

Adding more beds is not the solution to overcrowding in Canadian hospitals

The reality is that more hospital beds are not going to be the panacea for our health-care system that many want, hope and need them to be. Instead, there are several ways to drive improvements in the national health-care structures.

Twenty years of talk is enough: Digital tools like e-prescribing must become a core part of our health-care system

When the pandemic started and social distancing necessitated a switch to virtual care almost overnight, our digital health-care system struggled and sometimes failed entirely. This broken system must end now. Here's how we can fix it.

We need to do more: Advocating for refugee health after arrival in Canada

Canada is considered a “world destination” for refugees, but are we doing enough to support their unique health needs?

Do we have the political will to ensure effective, equitable health care?

COVID-19 has exposed the longstanding frailty of our health-care system. The truth is that every flu season, our hospitals burst at the seams. Hard-working health-care workers have held the system together so far. It’s past time to create the system they deserve.