Health coalition looks for risks to public health care in U.S. trade talks
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
Health coalition looks for risks to public health care in U.S. trade negotiations
“We are looking for what could be risks to our public health-care system in these negotiations [with the U.S.], whether it be through tariffs preventing us from getting medical equipment imported, driving up the cost of medical equipment and other supplies, [or] whether it could be about access to pharmaceuticals. There could be a whole host of areas that could be impacting health care in these negotiations,” said Steven Staples, National Director of Policy and Advocacy of the Canadian Health Coalition to The Hill Times, May 14, 2025.
Staples told The Hill Times that he is “cautiously optimistic” about Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) and his administration in its early days. The Liberals are—for the most part—moving forward on the agenda laid out by the previous Trudeau government, such as by continuing commitments towards pharmacare and dental care, according to Staples.
Training programs for student nurses in Quebec face cuts
“Students who are doing their college training—after two years, and those who are doing their university training, after one year—can ask us, at the Order, for extern status. This authorizes them to perform certain nursing activities. Not completely, since they are apprentices, but during the summer periods for example, and until very recently, even throughout the year. They can lend a hand to the care teams. But now, with the $1.5 billion cut that Santé Québec is making at the government’s request, there are several institutions that have decided to cut these positions. . . It’s not a good idea. It’s a solution for today that will create tomorrow’s problems,” said Luc Mathieu, president, Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ), Montreal City News, May 20, 2025.
Study says central wait-list would speed up joint replacement
“Unless you introduce a team-based model of care, you just have to wait until a spot opens up and that could be very long. That could be a year, year-and-a-half or longer,” said Dr. David Urbach, head of surgery at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, whose team compared three models based on data collected from more than 17,000 patients in Ontario, CBC News, May 20, 2025.
Black racism in health care has a history in Canada: new online course aims to change the future
“If you don’t understand the history, you have no way of understanding why the inequities which are experienced in communities today exist,” said Sume Ndumbe-Eyoh, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and executive director of the Black Health Education Collective. The primer covers topics like Canada’s history with slavery, structural and social determinants of health, and disrupting and dismantling anti-Black racism on individual and systemic levels, The Toronto Star, May 20, 2025.
Retired Alberta pathologist continues to spread misinformation
“There is just no doubt that the spread and normalization and legitimization of demonstrably false claims does harm to the public . . . It reduces public trust in the health-care system. It drives individuals to unproven and often disproven therapies, and it causes people to avoid approaches that have a large body of evidence supporting them, such as vaccination, as we now see with the rise in measles that is part of this story,” said law and health professor Tim Caulfield, an expert in misinformation on social media, in a story about Dr. Roger Hodkinson being sanctioned by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) for spreading anti-vaccine, anti-masking and other counter-scientific public statements, in The Tyee, May 19, 2025.
Manitoba NDP government prescribes more authority to pharmacists for contraceptives
(Granting pharmacists the means to assess and prescribe contraceptives) “is a very reasonable expansion of scope for pharmacists in Manitoba. . .We’re trying to get it out the door as quickly as we can for pharmacists across the province who have been asking for this for years,” said Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, CBC News, May 16, 2025.
Doctors support disability benefits but advise caution
“Physicians are deeply supportive of Canadians having access to the supports that can help enable them to not only survive but to thrive. But the burden of facilitating these benefits must not fall to already overworked health-care workers, nor should they create new barriers to care and support for the very patients this program is designed to assist, along with all Canadians who will see their access to care worsen. . . Governments should also provide paid, comprehensive training and support to physicians and other relevant health-care professionals regarding the DTC application and documentation process to minimize misunderstandings and confusion on program eligibility and how to complete the forms efficiently. . .The CDB is a positive benefit for the Canadians who are eligible to receive it. But it must not come at the expense of other patients who will see their access to care worsen as their physicians have less time available for patient care. Let’s avoid this unnecessary burden for both patients and overworked healthcare workers by working together to implement widely agreed upon solutions,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, Winnipeg public health physician and president Canadian Medical Association, The Hill Times, May 19, 2025.
Artificial Intelligence coming soon to health care?
“I don’t think there is a good future of health care without AI. . .If we don’t change anything in our health-care system, it will just look more burnt out with poorer patient outcomes. If we are motivated to change, it can look pretty great… Our (health-care) system is just so overwhelmed in Ontario and Canada that, unless we are creatively thinking about doing things differently, we just can’t keep up. It will get worse. . . We are producing a workforce that will keep up with technology,” said Danielle Manley, professor in the nursing school and researcher at Carleton University, Ottawa where students at Carleton’s new nursing school will have the option to learn coding and data analytics, Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2025.
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