“Health care transformation is needed next”: Star
This week’s round-up of who is saying what about public health care includes ideas for health care transformation and reactions to the health care deal on the table between the federal government and the provinces and territories.
Health care transformation needed now
“There need to be new strategies for recruiting doctors, reducing their paperwork so they can see more patients, allow expedited credentialing across the country and for new arrivals from abroad and have more of the hands-on care done by nurse practitioners or in health care teams, including nurses and pharmacists,” wrote the Toronto Star editorial board, Feb. 11, 2023
Premiers won’t leave health care funding on the table
“This is not long-term, sustainable funding that will address the health care challenges that we have across our country. It took 2½ years to even be able to sit down and be at the table and have a discussion with the Prime Minister. We’re going to look at investing those dollars in our health care and so we will accept this, and move on from here,” said Manitoba Conservative Premier Heather Stefanson, chair of the Council of the Federation, to the Globe and Mail, Feb. 14, 2023
Provinces must respect the Canada Health Act: Dominic LeBlanc
“The provinces can continue to do (various) things as long as they’re respecting the basic principles of the Canada Health Act, which deal with things like … access being based on medical need, not your ability to pay. But we’re going to be clear that the incremental federal money that we’re proposing has to go into strengthening … the public health care system, not the private health care system,” said Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc to Global News, Feb. 12, 2023
Manitoba Pilot program offers bonuses to family docs to expand hours
« Anything that allows for a little bit more control and agency over how care is provided will help physicians’ well-being overall. The funding will expand the mental health resources Doctors Manitoba offers and incentives to expand clinic hours will help with work-life balance,” said Dr. Shelley Anderson, Doctors Manitoba medical lead for physician health and wellness, Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 14, 2023
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Alberta says it will invest $15-million on internationally-trained nurses
“Access to financial support like the bursary announced today help alleviate some of the stress so internationally educated nurses like me can focus more on our education and less on paying our bills,” stated Nigerian-trained nurse Uche Nechi to Global News, Feb. 13, 2023
Hundreds of unfilled positions for mental health nurses in B.C.
“Registered psych nurses have expert knowledge and they are valuable and they are needed, but the problem is you can’t grow them on trees. Are you going to pull them from teams that are already strapped, that already don’t have lines filled? Are you going to take them from there? When we’re talking about filling new positions and making new teams and everything it’s great, that would be awesome, I’m all for that, truly, but where are the nurses coming from? » said Registered Nurse Maddi Beaumont to CTV News, Feb. 9, 2023
Experts say data necessary for health care reform
“The stark reality is without this data, we have no sense of where we need to start to really invest in improving the system. We need the data to be able to tell us exactly where to focus and how to make those changes… without that, we really are flying blind and we’re not able to actually make the impact that we all want to make,” said Laura Rosella, an epidemiologist and Canada research chair in population health analytics at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, to Global News, Feb. 10, 2023
Ontario non-profit Long Term Care homes demand caps on temp agency fees
« We have agencies who wait in our parking lot and talk to our staff on their departure from their day of work. Agencies then tell staff, ‘you don’t need to work as long or as hard with as much commitment and we can get you more money to do basically the same work. People are tired; there is no reprieve right now for anyone on the front-line and resiliency is starting to wane. What [the agencies] are doing is taking advantage of a very desperate situation in the health-care sphere, » said Steven Harrison, CEO of Tri-County Mennonite Homes, which runs homes in Stratford and the Kitchener-Waterloo area, to CBC News, Feb. 14, 2023
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