Health files
The latest edition of Health files features systemic problems in health care and future proposals to enhance public health care.
Quebec’s Indigenous sensitivity training falls short
“I hope Indigenous sensitivity training will be revised to include Indigenous people voicing their perspectives and experiences in the health-care system.
“I’m a nurse. I know how to navigate that system and that does not exempt me from feeling fear. When I walk into a hospital setting, there is fear. You’re unsure whether you’re going to be heard or listened to,” said Glenda Sandy, a Naskapi and Cree nurse from Kawawachikamach, Que., to CBC, Sept. 26, 2022, commenting on training following the 2020 death of Joyce Echaquan in Trois-Rivières, Québec.
No room for profit in health care: CUPE NB president
“There is no room for profit in health care. All Canadians deserve good quality health care… Your doctors, your nurses, your social workers and your environmental services, all of those who provide those services, we don’t have enough to manage one system, how are we going to operate two systems in this small province?,” Steve Drost, president of CUPE NB told Global News at a rally organized by the Canadian Health Coalition and the Council of Canadians outside the Liberal MP retreat in St. Andrews, NB on September 12, 2022.
Rural is not small urban – Health care challenges harder to fix in BC small towns
“They’re not feeling very listened to… They feel like people are discussing what should be happening in rural areas without really discussing it with the people who live in those rural areas,” Peggy Skelton, President, BC Rural Health Network told Global News, Sept. 25, 2022 regarding their initiative to help solve health care issues in rural areas.
The future is health care . . .
“Globally, we are facing a future in which health care will serve an even more pivotal role as the additional factor of climate change threatens our societies with environmental toxins, natural disasters, and novel viruses. Health-care workers will be relied on for recovery during inevitable future crises; the only hope, though, is that there are enough of us left in the field to provide that support. It is a bleak reality, but too important to trivialize,” Enxhi Kondi, Emergency Department nurse, told the Toronto Star for their six-part series on the nursing crisis, September 8, 2022.
Ontario can start addressing the nursing crisis by repealing Bill 124
“Repealing Bill 124 is the place to start. We also need to make Ontario an attractive place for nurses to build their careers after completing their education. We must reduce workloads, put more workplace supports into place and ensure professional opportunities for development . . .A concerted effort to understand the problem and tackle its root causes can lead us to a place where (citizens) do not have to worry if care will be there when they need it,” penned Doris Grinspun, RN and CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario in the Toronto Star, September 1, 2022.
Alberta United Conservative Leadership Candidate would help the rich and hurt everyday Albertans
“Given the link between wealth and health, Albertans without means would be worse off under (Leadership Candidate Danielle) Smith’s plans . . . Smith ought to be working towards alleviating, not perpetuating, that disadvantage. Employed persons will also worry about losing matching contributions in the event of job loss. The plan treats health-care access as a gamble that is contingent on good fortune. . . Improving our pandemic-battered health-care system requires a government plan that respects the fundamental premise of equitable access to effective, evidence-based health services. It requires a plan that will stabilize the health workforce without compromising the public system,” said Lorian Hardcastle, associate professor in the Faculty of Law and Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, and Ubaka Ogbogu, professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta in the Edmonton Journal, August 2, 2022.
Beware Ontario government’s enthusiasm for privatization
“. . . it’s hard to miss (Doug) Ford’s ongoing enthusiastic privatization of our health care. A few examples: he failed to protect thousands of vulnerable citizens from suffering and death in for-profit long-term care homes. He rewarded the owners of those homes, promising new, lucrative 30-year contracts. He privatized home care. In a pandemic, he privatized administration of vaccines and COVID testing, supplying the bulk of free testing to private schools,” said Dr. Nancy Olivieri, physician and professor at the University of Toronto, in the Hamilton Spectator, following the Ontario provincial election on June 2, 2022.
Address wait times within the public health-care system
“B.C. can address wait times more efficiently within the public health-care system by further increasing public surgical and diagnostic capacity (the recent acquisition of several private MRI and surgical clinics by the government are positive steps in this direction), scaling up successful strategies like centralized waiting lists and pre-screening by teams of health-care professionals and reducing the need for hospital care with more emphasis on primary and community-based care — especially for seniors,” Andrew Longhurst, health policy researcher and PhD student at Simon Fraser University and research associate with the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, inThe Tyee, August 29, 2022.
