“This is historic,” says NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on pharmacare
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
A week since ‘historic’ agreement on Pharmacare – legislation due any day now
“The general framework legislation that we wanted is happening . . . This is a bold, big step. This is historic,” said New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh to The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2024
Health Minister responds to Alberta vowing to not support pharmacare
“Some people are jumping the gun and talking about what that is before it’s completed and that’s creating some confusion. So the first thing I would say is everybody needs to take a pause . . . “For provinces to say whether or not they’re going to participate in something or not, when they don’t even know what it is, is a little premature,” said Federal Health Minister Mark Holland, Global News, February 27, 2024
Freeland says pharmacare must be ‘fiscally responsible,’ Philpott says lets make sure it’s universal
“It is very, very important to invest in supporting Canadians and to do so in a fiscally responsible way.” – said Federal Minister Chrystia Freeland… I think what I will be really watching for when we see the legislation is is it actually universal… The single-payer piece is enormously important,” said Dr. Jane Philpott, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University and former federal health minister, The Globe and Mail, February 25, 2024
Survey not positive about access to primary care
“When people don’t have access to primary care, it fundamentally means people aren’t getting the care that they need.They’re not getting the preventative care. Chronic conditions aren’t being managed,” said Dr. Tara Kiran, a family doctor and scientist with the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, CBC News, February 27, 2024
Rural Manitoba dealing with shortage of docs
“With a record shortage of physicians, we are seeing more and more service disruptions across Manitoba. In some communities, it has meant reduced hours or closures of walk-in clinics and in others it has meant the same for their local ER… When one service is disrupted, whether it’s walk-in or same-day clinic access or an ER closure, it places more pressure on the services left trying to cope and meet patient needs,” said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Michael Boroditsky.
“We didn’t get to where we are in primary care overnight and we’re not going to fix it overnight, but we are committed to every single day working with physicians in rural Manitoba, in places where there’s some of the highest need, to move things in a better direction,” said Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara to the Winnipeg Free Press, February 27, 2024
Another POV: Study asks what makes us healthy
“At the end of the day, the determinants of health—whether it’s our needing pharmaceuticals, or access to dental care, or mental health care, or physical health care—those determinants of health are the conditions into which we’re born, grow, live, work, and age… We need our provinces increasingly to better align their budgeting with the science of what makes us healthy because now for decades they’ve been deviating,” said Paul Kershaw, co-author of Health is more than medical care, founder Get Well Canada, professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, The Hill Times, February 26, 2024
$306 an hour for ‘travel’ nurses. Where is the money going, asks nurses’ union president
“Nurses in New Brunswick with 25 years experience earn $47 an hour. I would say to the Auditor General, ‘you need to do a deep dive into this and find out where all this money ($306 per nurse per hour) is going, because these are taxpayer dollars that are paying for these (travel nurse) contracts,” said Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, to listeners of CBC Information Morning, February 22, 2024
The tricky part about walk-in clinics
“I don’t think patients or members of the public really understand that when they go to a walk-in clinic, their doctor may be losing income. . . the majority of a physician’s income is based on the number of people they have rostered, And so the majority of income is not based on a per visit, it’s based on per-patient,” said Dr. Rick Glazier, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, to Global News, February 25, 2024.
Patients at private health clinics complain about unfair billing
“According to the records provided, you had consented to paying for and receiving these services . . . The (Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act) does not apply to uninsured services, and any costs associated with these services are the responsibility of the patient,” said Ontario’s Health Ministry to a patient.
“If the people went through the process of finding which number to call (to complain), of leaving a message, of waiting three weeks for somebody to call them back, of waiting another three months for them to do their investigation to get an answer … you didn’t have consent,” said Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelinas to the Toronto Star, February 22, 2024
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