Canada establishes drug agency before passing pharmacare legislation
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Government: No, it’s not pharmacare, it’s a drug agency
“The Canadian Drug Agency (CDA) will be built from the existing Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) and in partnership with provinces and territories (PTs). The Government of Canada is investing $89.5 million over five years to establish the CDA, in addition to the existing federal funding of $34.2 million annually to support CADTH,” stated the Health Canada News Release, December 18, 2023
According to Canadian Health Coalition’s Steven Staples, the Supply and Confidence Agreement between federal Liberals and the NDP is clear on pharmacare: “Continuing progress towards a universal national pharmacare program by passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023 and then tasking the National Drug Agency to develop a national formulary of essential medicines and bulk purchasing plan by the end of the agreement.”
Telecom company given BC contract to provide care for eating disorders
“Telus is not a leader in health care, they are a phone company… When somebody is going to their walk-in clinic or to an eating disorder clinic, they should be expecting to have publicly-funded health care that’s going to be connected to other publicly-funded resources in their community, and instead they’re being given a code to go to a company,” said Celeste Macevicius with Vancouver Island Voices for Eating Disorders to The Tyee, December 13, 2023
Ethics investigation in Alberta examines firing of Dr. Deena Hinshaw
“The bigger picture is that it is unethical for us in Alberta not to do anything about the drug poisoning deaths that we’re seeing, and the rising mortality rate, and the fact that Indigenous people make up a large portion of those who are dying. Our population is dying seven times more than the non-Indigenous population in this province… In order to drive a strategy forward and begin to make public health measures, we needed a public health physician,” said Dr. Esther Tailfeathers, celebrated Indigenous physician who led the team that selected Hinshaw, to CBC News, December 18, 2023
Taxpayers fund the research, big pharma gets the profits
“Canadian taxpayers played a key role in funding the technology that made mRNA vaccines possible. Yet Canadian authorities took no steps to ensure that the resulting vaccines would be made accessible to people who needed them rather than simply becoming enormous profit-generators for Big Pharma. . . Today, billions of people around the world, particularly in Africa, remain unvaccinated because pharmaceutical companies resisted international efforts to ensure their COVID vaccines were available to the world’s poor or that local manufacturers could produce their own versions of the vaccines,” said Linda McQuaig, freelance contributing columnist, to the Toronto Star, December 14, 2023
Letter writer wants Ontario premier to apologize to nurses
“Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra apologized profusely to developers for the government’s ‘mistakes’ in the Greenbelt (development) scandal. When will the (Premier Doug) Ford government apologize to all the nurses and other health care workers for their efforts to keep Ontarians healthy and safe, while they denied nurses a wage increase for the first years of the pandemic, and failed to adequately support our health care institutions. The (Ontario) auditor’s report confirmed that our front-line workers are bearing the brunt of a health care system in crisis. Treat nurses with the respect they deserve. Perhaps this will help minimize the exodus from the profession,” wrote Rick Foren, Ajax, ON, in the Toronto Star, December 14, 2023
Dental Care program a reason to say “cheese” — now let’s get Pharmacare done
“. . .Lack of a strategy around dental care has been a costly oversight for decades. This welcome news comes not a moment too soon, improving lives and saving money, one healthy smile at a time. . . So let’s raise a glass (of fluoridated water?) to finally adopting cost-effective policy that creates lasting change. In fact, maybe breaking out the bubbly is merited: after half a century the feds delivered on national child care and dental care in the last two years. Pharmacare’s waiting in the wings,” said economist Armine Yalnizian, Toronto Star, December 14, 2023
Welcome to our motel, a nurse will be with you shortly
“It is always concerning when you have patients who are either discharged or still admitted for the purposes of receiving hospital care to be in facilities that are not hospitals… I think it’s deeply troubling. Provincial health systems across this country are in severe distress, and yet we seem to have an absence of leadership and people willing to talk about how we try to reduce the burden on health services,” said Andrew Longhurst, health researcher at Simon Fraser University, to CBC News, December 13, 2023
Home care reforms miss the big problems
“Home care workers want to end privatization and develop a system with working conditions at the same level as the other parts of the public health care system. Until such reforms are implemented, the ability of home care to provide the service needed by the public will simply not be possible. Home care workers love providing care in the home and would choose to stay if they could afford it,” said Connie Ndlovu, homecare worker, president of CUPE Local 7797, Toronto Star, December 16, 2023
Doctor decries ‘sick care’ system
“I have some patients who have had one or two visits a week — more than 50 visits a year and more than 1,000 visits over my relationship with them — but they continue to struggle in their health. . .Why is this happening? Because ‘health care’ is no longer interested in health. We are a ‘sick care’ system. We treat end-stage and final conditions and give people false hope. We spend on hospital beds, not community services. We spend on hip replacements, not physiotherapy,” said Dr. Alykhan Abdulla, family doctor, board director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Director for Longitudinal Leadership Curriculum at the University of Ottawa, to the Ottawa Citizen, December 16, 2023
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