Protect pharmacare from corporate interests, says Health Justice Institute
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Protecting pharmacare from corporate interests
“If and when Bill C-64 is enacted, the federal health minister may use the disclosure of a conflict of interest as a means to allow experts with financial relationships to sit on the committee. Disclosure of conflicts of interest has indeed become common practice in the world of medicine, pharmaceutical research and policy. . . In this case, though, the stakes are too high: conflicts of interest must be avoided altogether. . .The members of the committee of experts envisioned in Bill C-64 have decisions to make which must not be shaped by any interest other than the public benefit of national pharmacare,” wrote Matthew Herder, director of Dalhousie University’s Health Justice Institute and professor of law and medicine at Dalhousie University, for Policy Options, a publication by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, March 20, 2024
Privatization drives up health care costs
Every person hired by a private facility leaves one less staff person in a public one
“A recent CBC investigation reported that the Ontario Health Insurance Program paid (Clearpoint Health Network, a national private-equity-owned surgical chain) 2.5 times more than public hospitals to perform cataract surgeries, and 3.1 times more for knee arthroscopies… Each staff person hired by a private facility leaves one less staff person in a public one… A vicious cycle results: As trust in public health care delivery erodes, officials become more likely to look to private clinics in a desperate attempt to address the crisis. Yet the expansion of private clinics makes staffing public hospitals more difficult. Wait times lengthen and access to public health care worsens, further eroding trust in governments. It’s a cycle that’s become all-too familiar to most Canadians,” wrote Iris Gorfinkel, Toronto family physician, clinical researcher, and Andrew Longhurst, Simon Fraser University health policy researcher, author of At What Cost?, in The Toronto Star, March 23, 2024
Federal budget needs to include funds to fight tuberculosis, a familiar foe in Inuit communities
“It’s not new… Obviously it’s very frustrating, especially when our governments continue to talk about doing really great things with Indigenous communities… We’re going to continue to advocate for all of those extra funds that we require, but as it stands, the government of Canada’s commitment is not going to become the reality at this rate,” said Jesse Mike, director of social and cultural development with land claim management organization Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., to CBC News, March 18, 2024
Restrict deals with insurers, says Ontario College of Pharmacists
“College (of Pharmacists) staff surveyed 4,309 pharmacy professionals in March, representing 20 per cent of Ontario’s work force and a third of all those in the province employed by corporate pharmacies. . .About 70 per cent of respondents reported feeling workplace pressure to bill for unnecessary services. The most commonly cited instances of this included MedsCheck calls, in which pharmacists call patients to review their medications; and minor-ailment treatment, a newly approved power for pharmacists, under which they prescribe drugs for common illnesses, such as pink eye. In both cases, the services are billed to Ontario’s public health insurance plan,” reported The Globe and Mail, March 25, 2024
Ontario spent $1-billion on private agency health workers last year
“The Ford Conservatives are underfunding our health care system so badly that hospitals and long-term care homes are left with no choice but to use these private nursing agencies . . .This not only costs all of us more money, it further drains workers from the public system,” said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Styles, to The Globe and Mail, March 25 2024
“Grow-your-own Nurse Practitioners”, say Saskatchewan rural municipalities
“Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners (SANP) believes we need to reinstate the Grow Your Own Nurse Practitioner Program that was announced by the government in 2014. At this time, it is crucial that we employ or fully utilize all NPs, or we will lose this valuable group of professionals to other provinces . . . Unfortunately, we still have more than 30 underutilized or unemployed NPs in this province. 30 NPs could immediately provide care to approximately 36,000 patients. That is equal to the population of communities such as Moose Jaw, Lloydminster, or Prince Albert,” said Johanne Rust, Nurse Practitioner and President of SANP, in the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities Newsletter, February 28, 2024
UBC med students recommend five ways to fix emergency care in BC
“We need a fundamental shift in the way we think about health care in B.C. and in Canada . . . We need to invest in people’s health outside of the emergency department to help with issues inside the emergency department,” said Sebastian Lopez, second-year medical student and political advisory committee senior chairperson, to The Tyee, March 25, 2024
Women docs working harder than male counterparts? -CMAJ study
“Historically, people might have suggested that any decline in hours was due to the feminization of the physician work force . . .The females didn’t decline very much at all. It was the males that drove 80 per cent of the decline. That was a surprise,” said Boris Kralji, McMaster University economist, to The Globe and Mail, March 25, 2024
Canada’s housing crisis includes long-term care
“Long-term care is a housing crisis by any other name, and one that remains prevalent in communities across Canada where thousands of people and their families are waiting for a bed. . .The long-term care housing shortage is an issue that continues to grow as Canada’s population ages. According to Statistics Canada, over the next 50 years, one in four people will be over the age of 65, which the Conference Board of Canada says will require an additional almost 200,000 long-term care beds. Without deliberate consideration and action, much of an entire generation of older Canadians will be without the housing and care they need,” wrote Jodi Hall, CEO of the Canadian Association of Long-Term Care, in The Hill Times, March 26, 2024
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