Dentist seeing seniors with massive cavities, broken teeth, bleeding gums and abscesses
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
9,000 oral health care providers signed up so far under Canadian Dental Care Plan
“I’ve seen a lot of patients that have infections. Not just dental emergencies, but borderline medical emergencies . . . I haven’t seen patients in this condition since I did overseas mission dentistry work in Haiti and Peru,” said Ottawa dentist Dr. Melvin Lee to CBC News, May 13, 2024
House of Commons health committee recommends changes to government’s interaction with the drug pricing board and pharmaceutical industry
“Last week’s committee report recommends clear protocols for communication between the minister and the regulator to prevent undue political influence. And it recommends the government review its interactions with the pharmaceutical industry. . . The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported last year that public health insurance plans spent $17-billion on drugs in 2022, up 6.4 per cent from the year before. Public health plans make up around 40 per cent of the market for drugs, with the rest coming from private plans or patients paying out of pocket . . . If the government is serious about broadening access to medicine, it must start by tackling the price of drugs,” noted the Globe and Mail Editorial, May 14, 2024
Patient death probed, nurses pushing for more robust security measures
“We are able to confirm that over the past weekend, the crisis response centre and Health Sciences Centre were the location of two incidents — one at CRC (Crisis Response Centre) and one at HSC (Health Sciences Centre)— that resulted in a patient death . . . Our deepest sympathies extend to the family of the patient involved as well as to all who are affected by this tragic event. . . The events leading up to the patient’s death have been declared a critical incident and are being investigated,” said Dr. James Bolton, medical director of Shared Health crisis response services and HSC emergency psychiatry, Winnipeg Free Press, May 14, 2024
Dire need for nurses and support workers in Ontario
“When they’re hiding it so that we don’t solve the problem by increasing wages and improving the conditions of work and conditions of care in the workplace, then they’re obviously not serious about solving this problem for seniors of our province,” said Sharleen Stewart, president of Service Employees International Union Healthcare, the largest union representing long-term care workers, to the Toronto Star, May 14, 2024
Federal Conservatives’ desire to bring back ‘common sense’ agenda
“To pay for their tax cuts the (Ontario) Conservatives took a scalpel to the health-care system and a sledgehammer to public education. There were closures of hospitals and local health facilities, while homecare services were taken from reputable non-profit groups and awarded to private companies paying poverty wages. People were outraged when the minister of health compared nurses who lost their jobs to workers making hoola-hoops that were no longer in demand. . . In long-term care, most homes had been run by non-profit community groups or municipalities. Over a decade, deregulation transformed the sector, so that the vast majority of facilities are now owned by corporate chains. When the COVID pandemic hit, private operations experienced three times higher death rates than public homes, with terrible scenes of neglect,” wrote John Cartwright, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, in The Toronto Star, May 11, 2024
Health minister says hygienists important part of dental plan
“Even as we’re seeing huge numbers of dentists join this plan, which is so exciting, there are a lot of communities where they just don’t have enough folks, so oral hygienists are going to be a big part of that solution,” said Federal Health Minister Mark Holland, to Ottawa CityNews, The Canadian Press, May 8, 2024
Not quite a news story: Abacus Data survey shows who Canadians trust for health info
“And when it comes to which authors to trust, health care professionals (physicians especially) are the most trusted authors of accurate information related to health and the health care system, followed by those in the wider medical community, like government health and health care organizations, associations, academics, and hospitals,” reported Abacus Data, May 13, 2024
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