Health files
This edition of Health files features the constitutional challenge against Ontario’s law forcing elderly patients into long-term care homes and the “astronomical gap” in health care for trans patients.
Ontario Health Coalition and Advocacy Centre for the Elderly challenge attack against rights of elderly patients
“The purpose of the legislation (Bill 7) and mandatory $400 fee is to intimidate and coerce older adults to leave hospital, to any destination, even those that are inappropriate. Under this law, hospitalized seniors’ personal health information can be sent to any long-term-care home without their consent, breaching a fundamental right to privacy over health information that every other Ontario citizen enjoys,” said Jane Meadus, lawyer and institutional advocate at Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE), in a news release with the Ontario Health Coalition, Nov. 22, 2022.
“There are many other solutions to the hospital crisis, but steamrolling over the fundamental rights of the elderly and the dying is not one of them. . . We have to challenge (Bill 7) on principle],” said Nathalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition Executive Director, in a news release with ACE, Nov. 22, 2022.
NDP responds to court challenge
“If a senior refuses to go to one of these homes, the premier (Doug Ford) has threatened to financially ruin them,” said NDP MPP and long-term-care critic Wayne Gates, Toronto Star, Nov. 22, 2022.
Transgender community faces ‘astronomical gap’ in health care system, advocates say
“It has been quite the struggle just trying to live and exist. . .Education is going to be key to creating this accessible, intersectional space that is filled with that loving mentality that each person deserves the highest quality of care,” said Jack Saddleback, a 32-year-old Cree two-spirit transgender man from Saskatchewan, and program director of JusticeTrans, Global News, Nov. 21, 2022.
How Canada can retain nurses: CFNU report
“From emergency room closures to children’s hospitals overrun with sick kids, health care is at a breaking point in every corner of the country . . . At the heart of this crisis is a dire shortage of nurses. Between years of persistent underfunding and the constant pressure of COVID-19, nurses are in desperate need of real change and support,” said Linda Silas, president of Canadian Federation of Nurses Union (CFNU), a member of the Canadian Health Coalition, on CTV News, Nov. 18, 2022.
Increased private-sector involvement a bad move: Manitoba Health Coalition
“You open up these private clinics — where is that staff supposed to come from, when we actually have a staffing crisis in Manitoba? The only place that staff can come from is the already existing public system. We all understand how important medicare is to us. What we really need is to bolster that public system. . . We are seeing the government make decisions that are based upon private profit and the ability to contract out, rather than to invest deep within our system,” said Thomas Linner, provincial director of the Manitoba Health Coalition, CBC Winnipeg, Nov. 20, 2022.
Crisis in health care and ways to fix it
“There are long-term trends that were obvious and predictable and should have been addressed. There are short-term trends that are the direct result of the stress and burnout that was brought on by the pandemic. And now the rise in respiratory infections are exacerbating those trends even more. . .” said Dr. Brian Goldman, on CBC Front Burner, Nov. 20, 2022.
