Calls grow to make health care a key election issue
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Put health care front and centre in federal election, says Manitoba health coalition
“A greater public investment is needed to ensure every Canadian has access to quality public health care, including pharmacare and dental care. The federal government has a key role in upholding and supporting national standards, while responding also to provincial priorities. . . As provincial economies face unprecedented threats from the United States, it is crucial that any additional federal funding designated to support provincial health care systems goes where it is supposed to go,” said Molly McCracken, interim spokesperson for the Manitoba Health Coalition, Winnipeg Free Press, April 9, 2025.
Election needs to get healthy by talking health care
“The Canada Health Act sets out criteria: reasonable access, which is a bit of a joke at the moment; comprehensiveness, of hospital and physician services. . .You should be able to get health care where you need it across Canada.. .The feds have never used their discretionary power to keep back money from a province that is allowing wait times to grow or not ensuring that everybody has access to a family doctor…. I think the Canada Health Act should be overhauled so that the federal government requires the provinces to have a fair, transparent process to determine what reasonable access is. . .Voters should be looking to parties to acknowledge that we are actually in a crisis, we’re in an emergency, and that we need to take very significant steps very quickly to fix medicare. It is simply unacceptable that 6.5 million Canadians do not have reasonable access to the most basic of care, family medicine. . . What we want to see is that the parties are taking this crisis, this emergency extremely seriously, and they have a serious plan to deal with it,” said Dr. Colleen Flood, dean of law at Queen’s University, previously the founding director of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, in an interview with CBC Radio-White Coat, Black Art, April 12, 2025.
NDP says it would tie federal health transfers to staff hiring and retention
“At the federal level, we should be talking about (health care). . . We know that, given particularly the threats to our country, Canadians are really starting to examine what it is that makes us Canadian. What are we proud of as Canadians? People are proud that we have a universal public health care system. But they’re also deeply worried that it’s in crisis right now,” said Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Toronto Star/The Canadian Press, April 15, 2025.
Alberta wants hospitals to compete for funding based on surgical turnover
“The incentive with activity-based funding is to discharge the patient as quickly as possible, because anything beyond the surgery itself is a cost, and you don’t want that eating into your overhead. . .What we see is that perverse incentive of discharging and getting rid of that patient as quickly as possible,” said Andrew Longhurst, health policy researcher at Simon Fraser University, to CBC/The Canadian Press, April 7, 2025.
Manitoba nurses demand better security after reported assaults
“I think we need lots and lots of Institutional Safety Officers (ISOs) in this province, and not just within Winnipeg . . .We are seeing violence escalating everywhere in health-care facilities. ISOs have to be the norm when it comes to security. . . Nurses just move on, go to the next room and deal with the next patient . . .We just sort of bury these things. Eventually, when we look at the instances of PTSD among front-line providers, there comes a time when there’s a straw that breaks the camel’s back… and all of those incidents just bubble to the surface,” said Darlene Jackson, president Manitoba Nurses Union, Winnipeg Free Press, April 8, 2025.
Alberta health-care profit plans will cost more
“Whether it’s chartered surgical facilities, privatized laboratory services or contract nursing agencies, repeated instances of introducing the profit motive to the provision of public health-care services show that privatization tends to increase health-care costs. And why wouldn’t it? Corporations exist to maximize profit, not to provide public services,” wrote independent, Edmonton-based journalist Jeremy Appel in The Tyee, April 15, 2025.
Advance health equity through DEI principles in health care
“The Black Physicians of Canada calls on all federal and provincial parties to unequivocally commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles in health care. . .Statistics Canada reveals a critical issue: although the Black population makes up 4.5 per cent of Canada, only 1.5 per cent of physicians are Black. This stark underrepresentation highlights the need for action and change,” wrote Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka, president, Black Physicians of Canada and associate professor at the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, and Julie Sobowale, lawyer, journalist and executive director of Black Physicians of Canada, in The Hill Times, April 7, 2025.
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