Health files
This edition of Health files looks at the nursing shortage, the overlapping crises of homelessness and health care, the challenges facing internationally-trained doctors, trauma-informed long-term care, and vaccine apartheid.
Private nursing agencies are taking a bigger share of Manitoba’s health care budget
“We’re in a national nursing shortage. It’s really a case at this point, of what is an employer willing, and what can they spend, to bring agency nurses to where they are. We’re seeing some pretty stiff competition out there,” Darlene Jackson, president, Manitoba Nurses Union, told the Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 25, 2022.
Being homeless is part of the health care crisis
“Emergency departments are a last resort, but a necessary stopgap, in a system of fragmented care for people who are homeless,” Sahil Gupta, Kate Hayman and Lorie Steer opined in the Toronto Star, Oct. 20, 2022
Internationally-trained doctors shut out of residency positions in Canada
“In a 2021 Leger poll, 80 per cent of Canadians surveyed agreed that they are comfortable receiving care from doctors trained outside of Canada. Despite widespread acceptance of internationally-trained physicians (IEPs), they are barred from competing for 90 per cent of residency positions across Canada by restrictive policies that are likely illegal and in violation of provincial and federal human rights legislation,” said Dr. Laura Blew, director of the Society for Canadians Studying Abroad, Toronto Star, Oct. 18, 2022.
Seniors need trauma-informed services in long-term care homes
“It means creating a safe (including culturally safe) environment with adequate staffing, training the workforce, screening residents for trauma upon admission and taking a personal history to be used as the basis for future care. It means management consults residents, their loved ones, and staff in all aspects of care planning as well as providing staff with access to specialized services like mental health teams, ” explained Carole Estabrooks for Policy Options, October 25, 2022.
Canada needs to do more to fight vaccine apartheid
“We heard from so many experts that were very, very clear that Canada could and must do more to ensure that people in low- and middle-income countries could access the vaccines, the diagnostics, the treatments,” Heather McPherson, NDP MP, told a May 9 meeting of the House Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee, and recently reported in part one of a three-part series by the Hill Times on a three-part series about the relationship between health equity and intellectual property.
